Philips centre to roll out tele-health system

The Philips Apac Centre, opened yesterday in Toa Payoh, employs 900 staff members, focusing mainly on innovation and providing digital healthcare services. The initial emphasis will be on the local market, but Philips plans to reach out across the re
The Philips Apac Centre, opened yesterday in Toa Payoh, employs 900 staff members, focusing mainly on innovation and providing digital healthcare services. The initial emphasis will be on the local market, but Philips plans to reach out across the region by forming strategic alliances with top healthcare innovators. PHOTO: PHILIPS

Chronically ill patients living at home could soon be part of a health monitoring system to be set up at a new facility that opened yesterday.

The home-based system to be rolled out by Philips Asean Pacific will allow patients to measure their vital signs at home before sending the information to an online sharing platform that can be accessed by healthcare providers.

The system will be housed at the Continuous Care Monitoring Room, one of the many facilities at the Philips Apac Centre that opened yesterday.

Located at the former Philips site in Lorong 1 Toa Payoh, the centre employs 900 staff, focusing mainly on innovation and providing digital healthcare services.

"Our new Philips Apac Centre... serves as a gateway to the region," said Philips Asean Pacific chief executive Fabian Wong.

While the centre will begin by focusing on the Singapore market, Philips "aims to form more strategic alliances with leading healthcare innovators in the region" in the future, said Mr Wong.

Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry) S. Iswaran said at the opening ceremony: "The centre's work is particularly important, given that the world is ageing rapidly."

He added that Asia is one of the regions with the highest projected growth rates of healthcare spending, at 8.1%for the 2014 to 2018 period.

He noted the Government's focus on "partnering industries to capture opportunities from new business models... and local healthcare providers for the development, test-bedding and export of new healthcare solutions".

He cited a pilot tele-health programme co-developed in 2014 by Philips, Eastern Health Alliance and Changi General Hospital. The programme customised care plans, monitored heart failure patients and gave advice on healthy living.

The Philips Apac Centre now houses a learning centre that has provided advanced equipment and classroom training since 2006. Philips continues to train healthcare professionals to improve their use of medical equipment.

The Health Continuum Space, which will allow researchers to simulate health-medical scenarios, is expected to become operational in the third quarter.


Correction note: A previous version of the article mentioned Philips Asean and Pacific - this is incorrect and should be Philips Asean Pacific. We are sorry for the error.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on May 20, 2016, with the headline Philips centre to roll out tele-health system. Subscribe