Philips has demonstrated its commitment to creating a better, more sustainable future at the Africa Innovation Experience 2015.
The chief executive officer of Philips Africa,JJ van Dongen inaugurated the Philips Innovation Experience 2015 in Johannesburg, providing a glimpse into the future of healthcare and lighting

The solutions will help people live a healthier life, innovations that will make care highly personalised and more widely available to those who need it, and ways in which ground-breaking lighting solutions can create safer and more sustainable cities.

Around the globe, disruption, innovation, and the rapid pace of technological development is reshaping consumer experience, as well as the operating environment for organisations of all sizes and within every industry.
The healthcare industry is no exception.  Today, technological and business innovation is empowering companies and healthcare professionals to deliver medication, treatment, as well as more effective care to patients quicker, more efficiently than ever ultimately resulting in better care that is accessible to many more people than ever before. The latter is vitally which strives to deliver personal, meaningful innovation that has a positive impact on people’s lives.

“Our mission is to improve the lives of 3 billion people by 2025. This is a bold and daring vision. But looking at the state of the world, it is a path worth taking,” Van Dongen stated this at the opening of the Philips Africa Innovation Experience.
The Philips Africa Innovation Experience provides a glimpse into the future of healthcare and lighting; attendees were taken on an experiential tour through an immersive setting, showcasing how the healthcare industry is slowly becoming more agile, effective and more importantly, within a regional context – more cost-effective – for people on the African continent. The rapid transformation of the lighting industry and how LEDs are transforming the nature of lighting -how and where, artificial light is used to enhance the human experience were part of the overall experience.

Van Dongen said: “Innovation has been and will always be at the heart of Philips and the Africa Innovation Experience underlines how we are pushing the boundaries to improve people’s lives with a host of localized solutions and services. With a presence in Africa for over 100 years Philips is committed to providing effective, sustainable and value based solutions to the continent. We hope to inspire our customers and partners and demonstrate the steps we can take together to improve people’s lives across the continent.”

Thanks to advances in imaging and monitoring technologies, combined with rapid development in digital health data and cloud computing, Philips is leading the transformation of the healthcare industry and creating highly integrated, personalised care with better outcomes at lower costs.

As part of the experiential setting at the event, attendees were able to see solutions which are addressing the challenges in Africa like: Philips PulseRelief, an app-enabled TENS (Trancutaneous Electronic Nerve Stimulation) device that helps users choose and control personal treatment to relieve pain. PulseRelief offers a drug-free solution to help chronic pain sufferers manage their pain discreetly. The app optimizes use of the device and allows users to track their pain before and after treatment, and over time using their tablet or smartphone.

VISIQ: is a transducer-plus-tablet ultrasound system that delivers the image quality of a cart-based system. Ultra-mobile and easy-to-use, it allows clinicians to perform quality diagnostic obstetric, gynaecological and abdominal scans anywhere, from hospital labour rooms to remote, rural locations.

Minicare Acute:Minicare Acute is a fully-automated handheld rapid diagnostic testing solution that can measure target molecules in very low concentrations (picomolar) in blood in a matter of minutes. Based on its proprietary Magnotech biosensor technology, the Minicare handheld diagnostic test can perform a wide variety of assays including hormones, drugs and proteins. The platform allows multiplexing capabilities making it possible to test for multiple markers from the same droplet of blood at the same time. The first application for acute care is cTnI (cardiac Troponin I). Philips aims to offer a full range of markers for the acute care setting.