Leveraging technology to improve patient outcomes

 

At Arab Health 2022, Siemens Healthineers will be showcasing a wide range of its latest innovations, from state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging through Artificial Intelligence powered augmented workflow solutions to robotic technology that help create tangible results for patients and for their businesses.

In an interview, Ole Per Maloy, Head of Siemens Healthineers Middle East and Southern & Eastern Africa, Siemens Healthineers said: “We are delighted to be participating on the show floor again at Arab Health 2022 and to welcome visitors in person on our booth. Our visitors will get a hybrid experience through in-person and virtual events, to see first-hand how we pioneer breakthroughs in healthcare.

“The entire team and I myself very much look forward to meeting visitors and our valued customers and business partners on our booth and guide them through the latest upgrades of our portfolio, the first time as well with our new colleagues from Varian, who will join us on the show floor to discuss news and updates in oncology and cancer treatment. Nonetheless, we are more than aware of the current situation and our main focus will be to keep all visitors on the booth and in our meeting rooms safe by follo-ing all suggested guidelines issued in order to maintain a positive and relaxed atmosphere.” Excerpts:

A key theme this year at Arab Health is healthcare transformation. What does healthcare transformation mean to you?

 

Innovation is the driver for advancing human health. We depend on innovation to transform healthcare and to reach the next level in diagnostic precision , laboratory automation and workflow optimization as well as in service provision. As an organization, we take great pride that innovation is part of our DNA. To share with you, Siemens Healthineers invests around EUR 1.3 billion in research and development each year.

The Middle East and Africa is growing and developing fast as a region, and this fosters innovation and advancement. Focal points of the transformation call for a patient focused approach, future-orientation and to enable access to healthcare for everyone. As a company, we stand united in our purpose: “We pioneer breakthroughs in healthcare. For everyone. Everywhere.” We want to use our innovation potential to transform the way healthcare works and to provide access to high quality healthcare where it does not exist yet. To achieve this, we offer more flexible and tailored imaging solutions, smart remote services and optimized, AI driven workflow automations, decreasing diagnosis time and costs.

To what extent will emerging health technologies such as AI, IoT and big data influence your business priorities?

 

At Siemens Healthineers, we aim to keep our fingers at the pulse of time. We believe that emerging health technologies need to be considered as a whole, not separately, to effectively work hand in hand and thus improve overall results in quality, speed and efficiency of healthcare. We combine our Artificial Intelligence driven workflow solutions with cross-clinical data collection along the patient pathway to enhance efficiency and diagnostic results for physicians and patients. A major focus now and also in the near future, will be on our digital twin technology, which delivers prognoses based on data, which connects neural networks using millions of datasets. The digital twin supports physicians in identifying potential therapies and in assessing their effectiveness, which helps find the optimal treatment for the individual patient while avoiding unnecessary costs for inadequate therapies.

As the world continues to pull out of the pandemic, are there any challenges still faced by your business, and how are you addressing these?

 

We are continuously observing the situation very thoroughly across all countries within our region as well as globally. First and foremost, we want to make our contribution to health and safety of the population by taking our role in reliably providing solutions and services to curtail the pandemic very serious. We witness the challenging situation our customers find themselves in on a daily basis – increasing number of patients, additional precautionary safety measures, staff shortage and difficulty to access servicing of revenue generating systems with tighter restrictions issued rightfully by governments. We are determined to help our customers through these difficult times. We are thinking outside the box to enable our customers to start or resume services and workflow which is our highest priority. We will continue to develop innovative solutions across remote services, training, support, and installation to provide adequate solutions and flexibility.

What will your business be prioritising in ‘post-pandemic’ times?

 

Our key priorities do not change. Providing access to care for millions of people in our region remains a key goal for us. Al is adapting to changed needs of patients and altered requirements of healthcare providers. The pandemic forced us as a society to question ourselves and our perception of healthcare. We need to exhaust our capabilities to be even better prepared the next time we are facing a similar situation for the global population and we as Siemens Healthineers are utilizing our capabilities as a company to provide suitable products and solutions to contribute to this objective.

How important is the resumption of international travel to your business?

 

We follow the philosophy of ‘customer first’, so we ensure that we are present by our customer’s side whenever need be. With this objective, we have a very strong network of business partners across the region who are present on ground and together with us always in very close contact with our customers. With international travel resuming, we are looking forward to visiting customers once again at the hospital facilities.