Innovating access to care
The digital revolution continues to have a major impact on healthcare systems worldwide – especially when it comes to improve the availability of caregivers and devices. For Getinge, this means increased innovation focus on providing solutions that can be used more efficiently.
“Climate change, digitalization and healthcare staff shortages are three major factors influencing our innovation work today. Ideally, we can tick all three boxes by developing digitalized solutions that reduce CO2 emissions and enable healthcare staff to focus even more on patients,” says Ulf Andersson, Vice President Research & Platforms at Getinge.
Getinge’s innovation process is based on frequent interaction with the users along the entire development journey. As solutions become more and more refined, prototypes and variants are evaluated together with customers to ensure they add value in the end.
“Innovation is a global effort that involves all Getinge functions, not only our research teams in Europe, United States and Asia. We also strive for partnerships with universities, in order to widen and strengthen our research perspective in areas with growing importance.”
Getinge views digitalization as a major enabler for making healthcare more sustainable.
“Just like many other industries, we will move into business models where software functions play a bigger role. All data collection possibilities available for connected devices open up fantastic possibilities,” Ulf explains.
Two fields where he is confident that Getinge will continue to provide value and contribute to progress are within automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
“Advanced algorithms can achieve a lot, such as helping users in their daily work. At the same time we have to be humble when discussing how AI can make decisions and operate devices automatically. Moving into AI also requires thorough validations and a meticulous regulatory development,” Ulf says. “However, it’s not all about AI. Many healthcare systems can be improved with other types of algorithms or by ensuring interoperability between systems. It’s a matter of finding the most efficient solutions.”
Over the years, many Getinge innovations have primarily been developed inhouse. Today, an era of partnerships paves the way for new business models and revenue streams. One example is a collaboration with the telecom sector, where Getinge is setting up its own 5G system.
“Secure transmission of data is key, and 5G has potential for mission critical information also in very large networks,” Ulf explains. “We compete for healthcare budgets with new players, such as established tech giants and startups. Our customers will invest in solutions that add value, no matter where they come from. It requires new perspectives to stay ahead and we are very excited to be part of that journey.”