philips upbeat on digital care as patients warm to data sharing - personal care electronics

AMSTERDAM (Reuters)-
Philips chief executive Frans van Houten told Reuters that the company expects sales in its digital healthcare business to grow this year as patients see sharing with doctors
Philips's Connected Care unit provides a platform to remotely monitor patients and doctors to share patient data.
"We expect a positive trend in connected care this year and sales growth will accelerate," Van Houten said in an interview . ".
Its sales lagged behind the company's larger division of sales of large medical equipment and personal care equipment, which stalled in 2018 and fell by 1% in 2019.
But Philips has stripped off its lighting and consumer electronics division and is now focusing only on health care, the expected increase in life expectancy and associated chronic diseases will lead to an increase in demand for equipment that allows patients to be monitored at home at the same time.
This view is supported by an international study published this week, suggesting that patients with access to digital health records are more satisfied with the care they receive, and are very willing to share the data with doctors.
The study involved 15,000 patients and 3,100 doctors in 15 countries, commissioned by Philips, and also showed that, 2 out of 3 people who are unable to access their records want doctors and other health professionals to have access to their data.
About 70% of doctors interviewed said their work had improved.
"The data is new gold," Van Houten said . ".
"We absolutely believe that sharing more data will lead to better diagnosis, better treatment and better results, and improve the productivity of doctors.
"The increasing use of digital records can help Philips as it sells software tools for doctors to collect data from records and devices that allow patients to collect health data, if the blood pressure is at home, share it with the doctor immediately.
"People want to use their data," Van Houten said . ".
"While data sharing is generally perceived as an aversion, we actually see the opposite in terms of health care.