Healthcare Management Will Never Be The Same
Today people are more connected in more places than ever and we are becoming more active participants in our own health. At the same time healthcare providers are looking for deeper clinical insights and actionable information to make better decisions and improve patient outcomes. A digital revolution in healthcare might take place by the innovative launch of an online healthcare platform initiated by Philips. The Philips HealthSuite is an open platform of service capabilities and tools designed to inspire and enable the development of next generation connected health and wellness innovation. Imagine a mobile app paired with connected health devices that allows people managing diabetes to capture and monitor their diet, glucose, insulin and more, all from their smart phone. The same data can be shared with their healthcare providers so that they 1) get a better insight into the medical conditions 2) get reminders and alerts for medication and testing 3) have a program to support the persons individual treatment plan and 4) a curated social community of others managing diabetes. Unlike other cloud computing platforms, HealthSuite is purpose-build for healthcare. It’s health optimized infrastructure allows seemless integration with existing heath enterprise ecosystems (Philips.nl, 2018).
Philips HealthSuite Business Model
The highly innovative business model is based on connecting multiple stakeholders: pharmaceutical companies, patients and care professionals. Main goal is to establish and strengthen this medical network by digital connected devices from Philips.
- Where are the revenues coming from?
Both pharmaceutical companies, patients and care professionals pay for using the online HealthSuite platform. Moreover, they have to buy the digital connected devices from Philips in order to be connected to the network. This is how Philips will mainly increase its revenue streams. - What value is delivered to which markets?
Philips’ main goal is to deliver customer value to people who need medical care, e.g. elderly or people with certain diseases. These customers will get more personalized care which they can monitor by themselves and which results in a more efficient treatment. After all, this treatment will be less stressful for patients since they are now able to stay in their own environment at home instead of going to the hospital. Patients thus get more personalized care which is the main value that Philips delivers to them.
Secondly, Philip’s delivers value to the other side of the healthcare sector, i.e. the healthcare providers. By delivering an online platform and highly innovative infrastructure, it becomes less time-consuming for healthcare providers to monitor and treat their patients. Healthcare providers share their knowledge via the HeathSuite platform and can communicate with patients easier. Healthcare providers thus get more chance on sharing knowledge, provide efficient treatments and could thus increase their positive impact on patients via the digital platform. - What costs are involved in delivering that value?
Philips has to invest in research and development of digital connected devices and the online platform infrastructure. Another important cost item is the security of customer data which is very vulnerable in healthcare. Philips thus needs to invest in 1) improving the platform and innovating its products and 2) monitoring the data streams in order to protect data leakage.
Figure 1. HealthSuite Platform Stakeholders (Philips.com, 2018)
Theoretical Point-Of-View
Following Grönroos & Voima (2013), customer value creation depends on product and service interrelationships and product and service bundling. This resource integration-based view implies that customer satisfaction partly depends on its overall goodness of fit (Solomon and Buchanan, 1991). The Philips HealthSuite Platform does connect multiple stakeholders by providing a highly interactive platform where all stakeholders are connected and where both medical devices (products) and medical care (services) are bundled together. For example, a patient can monitor its own treatment at home while doctors can follow his or her results digitally. When needed, doctors can communicate with the patients and can provide them some extra treatments, such as medicines. Doctors will then switch to pharmacists via the platform to connect them with patients. In this case, Philips delivers customer value by interrelating products and services and bundling them together.
Following Karwatzki et al. (2017), individuals’ privacy valuation is a strong inhibitor of information provision in general. Following this line of reasoning, service providers need to align their service designs with consumers’ privacy preferences. Although Philips HealthSuite Business Model might be valuable in terms of revenues and costs, there is an important risk to consider. Medical data in healthcare industry is very sensitive and vulnerable. Patients may feel scared by sharing their personal data on such a highly intensive network. How will Philips elaborate on these dangers?
Figure 2. Patient Relationship Management (Philips.com, 2018)
Call-to-action
A digital revolution in healthcare might take place by the innovative launch of an online healthcare platform initiated by Philips. Although this might be beneficial for many different stakeholders and delivers great customer value, we need to consider the ethical and legal dilemma’s of this revolution and protect customer privacy.
Are you curious?
In collaboration with Radbout University, Philips designed a digital application where patients can monitor their own diabetes and are able to share their results with professional doctors and other patients. The following video illustrates a prototype that could help patients with type-1 diabetes. Link to YouTube Video: HealthSuite Philips
Bibliography
Grönroos, C., & Voima, P. (2013). Critical service logic: making sense of value creation and co-creation. Journal of the academy of marketing science, 41(2), 133-150.
Karwatzki, S., Dytynko, O., Trenz, M., & Veit, D. (2017). Beyond the Personalization–Privacy Paradox: Privacy Valuation, Transparency Features, and Service Personalization. Journal Of Management Information Systems, 34(2), 369-400. doi:10.1080/07421222.2017.1334467.
Solomon, M. R., & Buchanan, B. (1991). A role-theoretic approach to product symbolism: mapping a consumption constellation. Journal of Business Research, 22(March), 95–109.
https://www.usa.philips.com/healthcare/innovation/about-health-suite
Author
Daan Verpalen, Student MSc. Business Information Management, Erasmus University, Rotterdam School of Management, 2018 (studentnumber: 374199)
Consumer Value Creation 