Philips highlights wearable tech in healthcare with pitch competition

Entrepreneurs joined Royal Philips (NYSE:PHG) executives and other players in the medical device industry last week at Philips’ Wearables & Chronic Care Challenge to tout their novel wearable technology and compete for a chance to win $10,000. It was the second time that Philips has hosted the event, in-line with the two-year anniversary of the company’s connected sensing unit, led by Ravi Kuppuraj. “We’re almost like a little startup within Philips so we bring that startup mentality and attitude, enthusiasm, speed and lean principles,” he told MassDevice.com. Philips’ Connected Sensing unit was put together to help bring wearable technology to mainstream healthcare, Kuppuraj said. Lately, the team has been specifically focused on designing wearable technology for the general ward. “Beyond the ICUs and the CCUs, one of the interesting things we found as we talked to our customers was all the challenges and the unmet need in the general wards and general care areas of the hospital,” he said. General wards are getting more crowded, Kuppuraj explained, and there isn’t always a nurse for every patient. And patients in a general ward are usually mobile, unlike those in the ICU. After talking with healthcare providers, the connected sensing venture team used a four-pronged process to bring to market a wearable that could be useful in the general ward. They evaluated the patient’s experience, associated outcomes, cost...
Source: Mass Device - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Hospital Care mHealth (Mobile Health) Patient Monitoring Wall Street Beat bolddiagnostics leukolabs nanowear Raiing Medical royalphilips Source Type: news