en.Wedoany.com Reported - WellSpan Health has signed a seven-year strategic alliance with Philips to advance advanced imaging technologies across its network and co-develop new artificial intelligence and technology tools.
Philips' technology will cover all 12 of WellSpan's hospitals, diagnostic imaging centers, and outpatient surgery centers in central Pennsylvania and northern Maryland. The long-term commercial agreement establishes Philips as WellSpan's preferred supplier for patient monitoring, enterprise informatics, and all applicable imaging modalities, including CT, MR, digital X-ray, ultrasound, and image-guided therapy. Both parties stated that the commercial agreement includes a structured technology lifecycle management approach, with WellSpan and Philips aligning equipment, services, training, and upgrade planning under a unified coordination framework. This alliance marks the first time Philips has engaged in research and innovation collaboration with a U.S. community healthcare system. The two parties plan to leverage Philips' R&D pipeline to jointly develop new products and features to advance healthcare delivery, with WellSpan serving as both a testing ground and co-creator. Research will examine how AI and digital tools can improve throughput, cost, and workflow efficiency.
Dr. Roxanna Gapstur (R.N.), President and CEO of WellSpan Health, told Fierce Healthcare that the strategic partnership with Philips broadly aligns with the health system's innovation strategy of deepening collaboration with a select few technology companies and fits its WellSpan 2030 strategic plan. In September, WellSpan Health expanded its partnership with General Catalyst to test and scale AI tools. The health system has also collaborated with health tech startups Hippocratic AI and Aidoc, as well as Amazon Web Services, on cloud and analytics technologies.
Gapstur noted that WellSpan has evolved its technology strategy to focus on culture and capabilities, deploying AI and technology in an intentional manner rather than just pilot projects. Over the past five years, WellSpan has worked to streamline the health system, simplify matters for patients, and achieve personalized care, leading to the establishment of large partnerships rather than pursuing solutions one by one. Gapstur emphasized that most people in the U.S. receive care in community health systems, and partnering with Philips is a significant step in extending the latest innovative technologies and AI tools to community providers. Both parties can build together, leveraging innovation and research functions to improve community care, develop new products such as workflows, software, and patient imaging modalities, and validate improved outcomes through research. Gapstur stated that partnering with Philips will position WellSpan at the forefront of community health diagnostics and imaging. Potential areas for future innovation include AI applications in imaging, AI-driven workflows, and using digital twins to advance imaging procedures and diagnostics. Philips is developing virtual avatars for patient scanning to soothe patients through human-like interactions when technicians cannot be in the same room. The use of AI helps reduce scan times. Digital twins can simulate the human body or logistics, learning from them to improve processes. Gapstur added that the team has some initial ideas and will meet in the coming months to develop a first-year work plan.
Through the technology partnership with Philips, WellSpan aims to expand access to care services, including in rural communities, while alleviating pressure on clinical teams through AI and digital tools. The health system's goal is to recover over 450,000 hours of work time by 2026. Gapstur indicated that WellSpan will establish only two, three, or four partnerships, with Philips becoming one of these larger platforms.
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