Markham, Ontario, and Amsterdam, the Netherlands – Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) today announced that it is partnering with the Mackenzie Innovation Institute (Mi2) in Canada on opportunities to develop, test and evaluate technological solutions and innovations intended to improve patient care across the healthcare system.
“Truly innovative patient centred solutions require collaboration between technology leaders like Philips and healthcare innovators,” said Altaf Stationwala, President and CEO, Mackenzie Health. “By working together, we can develop technological capabilities to improve workflows and productivity for our team, while creating solutions to continually improve care for patients.”
Working together with healthcare, industry and academia, Mi2, a registered Canadian charitable organization, aims to enhance healthcare research, education and training to help develop and promote new and disruptive innovations for the healthcare industry and create sustainable value-added improvements in patient experience, quality and outcomes. Mi2 has developed an extensive knowledge base on the implementation and evaluation of disruptive innovations. Using this knowledge and experience, Mi2 aims to be an industry leader and go-to source for healthcare solutions.
As a Mi2 partner, Philips will bring healthcare technology expertise, insights and global best practices to help understand and address challenges faced by the Canadian health system. The partnership will enable Mi2 to develop leadership resources for the creation of innovative and disruptive new technologies and collaboration on Mi2 education and training development, workshops, publications, research projects and clinical studies.
The partnership between Philips Canada and Mi2 aims to explore innovative projects such as process redesign and practice changes that could improve patient care and may be tested and trialed at Mackenzie Health’s Innovation Unit and beyond. The Mackenzie Health Innovation Unit is an acute care medical unit at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital and acts as a living laboratory for innovations to be developed, evaluated and adopted by other patient care units at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital, as well as the future Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital, and potentially at the health system level.
“We want to deliver on our vision of improving the lives of 3 billion people by 2025, and that includes a shared commitment to rethinking how Canadian healthcare is delivered,” said Iain Burns, President and CEO, Philips Canada. "Working shoulder to shoulder with those at the front lines of Canadian healthcare like Mackenzie Health and other partners in Mi2 enables the cross-pollination of ideas that will allow us to bring education and healthcare into our communities and new rigor to healthcare technology.”
Philips Canada’s partnership with Mi2 is the latest in Philips efforts to drive healthcare transformation, including working with leading academic institutions and health care providers across the market. In addition, Philips is helping to establish best practices in healthcare management as part of various large-scale vendor partnerships and innovative managed equipment services agreements with innovative health care providers like Mackenzie Health.
In November 2015, Mackenzie Health and Philips, both recognized for their leadership in healthcare innovation, announced the largest Managed Equipment Services (MES) deal in Canada. Working together to advance Mackenzie Health’s ‘smart hospital’ vision, the multi-year, large-scale managed equipment services agreement is structured to support Mackenzie Health’s transformation into a two-hospital regional provider of best-in-class care through medical technology optimization and a concerted focus on the patient experience. The new 342-bed ‘smart’ hospital in Vaughan will be the first new hospital to be built in southwest York Region in more than 50 years. Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital will embrace connected health technologies or the ‘Internet of Healthcare Things’ to offer a state-of-the-art emergency department, modern surgical services and operating rooms, access to acute inpatient and intensive care beds, technologically-advanced medical imaging, specialized ambulatory clinics and a flexible design, enabling it to evolve as new thinking and best practices emerge.
