Head of Siemens Healthineers Middle East & Africa
Vivek Kanade is the Managing Director of Siemens Healthineers in the Middle East and Africa. In this role, Kanade is responsible for driving sustainable innovation and growth across the designated regional businesses of Siemens Healthineers. He joined from his prior role as Executive Director of Siemens Healthineers in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and the Maldives, followed by a six-month appointment as Head of Strategy for the company in Asia-Pacific, leading the regional strategic alignment and directions of the medical technology manufacturer. Kanade brings to the role 30 years of diverse experience in healthcare, leading high performing cross-functional teams across Europe, Asia and now the Middle East & Africa.
Briefly tell us about your organisation and its activities in the healthcare industry, notably in the Middle East region
Siemens Healthineers is active in the areas of diagnostic imaging, laboratory diagnostics, cancer care and minimally invasive therapies, augmented by digital technology and artificial intelligence. We use our innovation potential and experience to provide quality health care and increase access to care for everybody,
especially the more vulnerable communities. Access to Care is one of our focal points in the Middle East & Africa region, supporting public and private organizations and our customers to build a sustainable and cost-efficient healthcare infrastructure, providing high quality healthcare where it is needed.
What are your thoughts on the current market trends? If possible, please predicts the sectors poised for growth.
We at Siemens Healthineers believe that there is still a lot of potential to explore in emerging health technologies. The area and opportunities are vast, from new treatment solutions, workflow solutions and large-scale data integration, to advancements directly impacting the patient such as telemedicine, patient-twinning or remote patient care.
Technologies such as AI and Metaverse offer a huge potential for applications in healthcare and of course commercial opportunities, that the industry will continue to explore for the foreseeable future.
Please highlight your portfolio and/or services. What sets you apart from others in the region’s competitive market?
Beyond our regular portfolio of equipment and services, we are consistently exploring new ideas and breaking new grounds to cater for our customer’s and patient’s needs. We cooperate with public and private partners to tackle the biggest challenges across our region and in our industry, especially the shortage of highly qualified staff, as well as missing or under-developed healthcare infrastructures in many of the markets within the Middle East and Africa. Also remaining in our center of attention will be the entire scope of non-communicable diseases, and especially, together with our colleagues from Varian, following our vision of a world without fear of cancer. Being in a position to look at the entire healthcare and patient continuum, provides us as a company with unrivalled opportunities.
Tell us about your recent achievements and accolades.
Personally and as I have just arrived in the region, starting my designation as Managing Director for Siemens Healthineers Middle East & Africa, I will try and leverage my experience from previous roles within the company across Asia and Europe, to help our customers and our own business to further grow. From a company perspective, the recent months and years in the region have been very exciting and we have explored new territories. Amongst many others, I would like to highlight three exemplary achievements:
1) We have successfully started to establish long-term partnerships with HCOs especially in the Middle East, we call them Value Partnerships, helping the organizations improve every single aspect of their day-to-day routine and significantly increasing workflow efficiency.
2) We have been supporting multiple public and private organizations in capacity building activities with our Innovation Think Tank program, which connects students, healthcare professionals, healthcare providers and educational institutions to define local or regional challenges and find self-sustaining solutions to it.
3) We have put a significant focus on our Access to Care initiative, strengthening local healthcare infrastructures and fostering accessibility to high quality education for healthcare professionals.
Give us an insight into your investments and partnerships, as well as your plans for 2024
Connecting to the previous question, we will carry on with our existing partnerships and we are striving to create new partnerships to achieve our objectives for the
communities and the region. One example for partnerships to stay tuned for is a pilot program for a drone delivery service for blood samples we are currently finalizing together with our technology partner in Germany, Wingcopter, which will connect rural areas and their patients to central laboratory hubs. This will enable fast and precise diagnosis where it is currently not available due to infrastructural restrictions. Please visit our booth S1.D10 in Sheikh Saed Hall 1 at Arab Health to have a detailed look at the drone and our vision behind it.
What will you be showcasing at Arab Health 2024, and what opportunities are you looking forward to?
For 2024, we have got exciting exhibits and information for attendees on our 320+ sqm booth! We are showcasing the entire range of Siemens Healthineers product and services portfolio with several brand-new highlights, specifically in Computed Tomography, Magnetic Resonance and Laboratory Solutions, where we will introduce visitors to our latest inspiring innovations. Furthermore, we will be taking them on a journey on Access to Care, Cancer Care, Women’s Health, workflow solutions and the imaging value chain.