Wido Menherdt,
CEO, Philips Innovation Campus (PIC)
Philips, which ranks third among the health IT companies in the world, strives towards making healthcare more accessible and affordable. In conversation with Sruti Ghosal, Wido Menherdt, CEO, Philips Innovation Campus (PIC) shares his vision on making healthcare affordable for the masses
Do you think the Indian healthcare system is fertile enough for innovations? What are the challenges you see cropping up limiting the acceptance level of the Indian healthcare fraternity?
Indian Healthcare is ready for innovation. The biggest issue that Indian healthcare system faces is access. If you look at the modern healthcare system it still lacks access and we are definitely working towards increasing the access level. The ground is also very fertile for entrepreneurial development as India is the country of entrepreneurs. So there are a lot of entrepreneurs who are setting up hospital chains which are very innovative in nature.
The main challenge which India faces is cost-expense, which is much more challenging in India than in other countries. But India is a value oriented country so attaining the target is not impossible here.
Do you think the healthcare regulations are not giving a positive environment for growing innovations?
Currently the Indian regulations are not at par with the US regulations. Because of the FDI regulations in India, few people think that India doesnt want to welcome innovations. But according to me regulations are by and large a good thing. So what the government is doing is the right thing, because we want to give our products which are suited for the Indian market. We want to deliver products which will actually be beneficial to the Indian healthcare system and therefore designing innovations which doesnt sync with the Indian healthcare system doesnt hold any good.
The ground is very fertile for entrepreneurial development as India is the country of entrepreneurs. So there are a lot of entrepreneurs who are setting up hospital chains which are very innovative in nature
According to you how costeffective is the Indian health IT market?
We are trying to make it cost-effective and more affordable. In India, a certain strata of the society can afford high-end healthcare, but the majority cant. But if you see the Indian market at large it is much more affordable than the other developed nations of the world. We are trying to make our products more cost-effective and more affordable.
How do you see the growth of the health IT market in India?
The health IT market has limitless opportunity and it is open for innovations. For example the telemedicine service in India has quite proved to be useful. India is a value oriented country and when people saw that making a phone call costs lesser than going and visiting the hospital in person, they started adopting that technology. So in India there are more opportunities for innovations and Indians are accepting new changes and giving way for innovations.
What are your future plans of expansion?
The range of Philips products is very broad at PIC. From a global perspective we want to bring in more innovations among the local products. Over the time, we want to bring in innovations in almost all the ranges of Philip Healthcare system that is available in the market. We want to bring in more innovations in the home space, where people can stay at home and get the same treatment as they receive at hospital. Unlike US in India people have to stay in hospitals for months to recover and undergo treatment, so Philips is working towards providing solutions which will enable a patient to actually stay at home and undergo treatment at the same time
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