The future of health care is connected

“Digitalization is about using advanced technology to save time, remove unnecessary administration and basically make life easier,” says Charlotte Enlund.

She joined Getinge a few years ago and leads initiatives for digital solutions and services including a team working with hospital efficiency solutions.

“We provide systems for operating rooms, intensive care units, central sterile supply departments and other hospital divisions by connecting products or offering IT solutions. In addition, we provide efficiency solutions for our Life Science customers,” explains Charlotte.

According to her, the benefits of digitalizing health care are many.

“For example, for health care staff it means simplified workdays that are better planned. Less manual coordination, better use of resources for what matters most and easier ways to estimate things. For patients and relatives, it mens more security, less worrying and shorter waiting times.”

In the future, Charlotte is certain that more systems in health care facilities will be connected; interoperability that links equipment together as a whole.

“When this happens, we connect big data from many sources. Over time, this data pool will help us find new solutions, new ways of evolving quality of health care. We focus on the humans; the health care staff. By understanding their needs we can create solutions that makes their workdays easier and contributes to more sustainable health care for generations to come.”

One of the unique solutions in Getinge’s portfolio is T-DOC, a world-leading sterile supply management and surgical instrument traceability solution that makes the entire hospital flow more efficient. When it launched 25 years ago, it was a unique solution to the market.

“It can help ensure complete instrument traceability, optimized instrument and device utilization, and makes sure instruments are delivered in time for each surgery. The amazing thing about T-DOC is that the software is so extensive and consistently developed over the years that it today can be adapted to any hospital setup. As health care evolves, so does our solutions.”

Another trusted solution is Torin, which helps meet the complex requirements of today’s OR management. It optimizes the planning in the OR with fast and reliable surgery scheduling. In the recent years, efforts have gone into developing the solution further, leading up to the release of a simulation and planning tool called Torin OptimalQ.

“We launched it last year as a response to the worldwide challenge of bringing down elective surgery backlogs in the pandemic aftermath. Our team came up with this innovation by looking at how we can utilize our miles of data and knowledge on efficient surgery planning.”

Both T-DOC and Torin are developed in close collaboration with customers which Charlotte finds crucial for IT innovations.

“We need to know their environment and what their processes look like to be able to add more value into their work. Our customer service is also open around the clock to help solve challenges. With Getinge Online, our digital service offering, we provide remote service and make sure the equipment is up and running at all times, which has been especially helpful during the pandemic.”

Getinge’s solutions are specific but they all contribute to a complete solution for the hospital flow. The equipment is often integrated with solutions from other suppliers to make sure the customer don’t have to adapt to their new investments, but the other way around.

“To create real improvements, we need an open ecosystem where we collaborate and share knowledge with partners and other suppliers. As I see it, this is where we can create most value.”

Discover more about Connected Health Care at Getinge >>

About Charlotte

Lives in: Copenhagen, Denmark.

Joined Getinge: In 2019.

Defines digitalization as: A transformation where IT tools are used to make work easier.

Favorite digital innovation: A hardware development; the processing power of computers.