Royal Philips today announced that it is strengthening its collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) as part of its strategy to enable a digital health IoT for new types of connected and personalized devices. AWS IoT, a new platform that makes it easy for devices to connect to AWS services, will expand the connectivity, capabilities and services of Philips’ HealthSuite digital platform, an open IT infrastructure that supports the secure management of data related to a person’s health and lifestyle, as well as large scale clinical data.
In partnership with AWS, Philips is currently working with academic medical centers, and patient advocates to achieve global scale and accelerate the realization of connected care across the health continuum from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care.
HealthSuite Digital Platform on AWS
To drive this new type of care, Philips developed the HealthSuite digital platform, running on AWS. It securely collects, aggregates and analyzes data from a variety of apps and medical devices and systems such as EMRs. This platform has a secure device cloud that is already managing more than seven million connected devices, sensors and mobile apps – fully embracing the potential of the Internet of Things.
With AWS IoT, Philips will enhance its platform with a future proof, secure and scalable IoT environment. The technology will create added value for customers in terms of smarter and more personalized solutions for healthier living and care coordination, and allow products – like medical alert systems and baby monitors – to grow smarter over time.
Unleashing the Power of IoT for Seniors
One example of how AWS IoT in the future could support new solutions enabled by the HealthSuite digital platform is the support of the growing population of seniors. Seniors often manage one of more chronic conditions. Philips aims to enable seniors to continue living independently and more safely in the comfort of their own homes for as long as possible. As digital technologies continue to emerge and proliferate, innovative and promising possibilities for self-measurement and remote monitoring of personal health become rapidly accessible.
With the extra capabilities of AWS IoT added to the HealthSuite device cloud, it will be easier to acquire, process, and act upon data from heterogeneous devices in real or near-real time. Propositions to support independent living, for example Philips’ HomeSafe Medical Alert system, could potentially easily be expanded with other and new-to-market devices. With advanced analytics, the combined data from these devices will give greater insights.
This will help to make solutions more personalized and thus more meaningful. It could, for instance, help to respond at an earlier stage to deteriorating health conditions by picking up subtle changes in one’s lifestyle over time, both inside and outside the home.
