Philips - On the Royal Road to Czar of Medical Equipment
The Supreme Ruler of Medical Equipment- Royal Philips
In 1998, Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands fathered the Philips Healthcare Services group and appears determined that their "crowned prince" will soon become King of the medical imagingequipment industry. Apparently, this move was in response to GE Medical Systems' announcement that it planned on becoming king itself of the ultrasound industry before the year 2000. Not to be outdone, Philips from the first year began an acquisition frenzy so they could expand its subsidiary's product portfolio well beyond its initial product line, which started in 1918 with medical x-ray tubes.
At the end of Philips Healthcare Services first year, Philips Electronics added digital ultrasound systems to PHS's portfolio by getting ATL Ultrasound of Washington. Only 2 years later, in late 2000, Philips grew into nuclear medicine by absorbing ADAC Laboratories of California.
In 2001 was a watershed year as Philips went into high gear by obtaining two more companies and their product lines - Agilent and Marconi Medical. By procuring Agilent Technologies Healthcare Solutions Group of Massachusetts, Philips shot past GE Medical as the leader of the ultrasound sector. Philips absorbed Agilent's expertise in the areas of diagnostic cardiology, automated defibrillators, patient monitoring, and point of care diagnostic systems.
Marconi Medical Systems of Ohio, formerly Picker International, was already a big player in its own right among gigantinc global CT suppliers. With Marconi, Philips obtained cutting-edge multi-slice CT technology along with cardiology, oncology and PET/CT imaging applications. These 2 aquirements in one year put Philips in the top 3 for all of the medical equipment industry along with giants Siemens and GE Medical - some say as number 2.
In 2005, the expansion kept going as Philips bought Stentor, Inc. of California, provider of best-in-class picture archiving and communications systems (PACS). This move allowed Philips to aid its clients successfully control the many amounts of imaging data created by its medical scanners. Then, the next year, the expansion continued as Philips adopted Witt Biomedical Corporation, the largest independent supplier of Cath Lab monitoring and reporting systems.
In its quest to be crowned King of the Medical Equipment industry, Philips Healthcare Services has acquired six companies since its inception in 1998. Every single one of the six has extended Philips' offerings to include a total of ten medical imaging modalities, from CT to MRI to x-ray, along with defibrillation and cardiac monitoring equipment in addition to image and information management solutions.
So, has Philips arrived at the royal industry castle yet? Some think so. In fact, prior to the last 2 acquisitions, Palo Alto's "growth consulting" company Frost & Sullivan thought so. In 2004 Frost & Sullivan told everyone they were awarding Philips FIVE awards for "technology and services innovation and industry leadership". Philips was recognized for making distinguished contributions to the cardiac resuscitation and medical imaging industries and for providing leadership in these market segments.
Was Frost & Sullivan merely looking for a place at the royal court or were these legitimate kudos? The latter, most likely. F&S held interviews with several market players along with their customers and suppliers, and reportedly did a great deal of research into the medical equipment technology field.
One of the 5 awards involved the regent-like titles of "Medical Imaging Company of the Year", "New Care Setting of the Year", and "Medical Imaging Technology of the Year". The other 2 were for Technology Leadership and Services Innovation Leadership.
The answer of Jouko Karvinen, president and CEO of Philips Medical Systems, to the awards sounded like the equivalent of an industry coronation speech. He stated, "We proudly accept the Frost Sullivan Awards as an independent validation of Philips business and technology leadership. These five awards are more indicators that Philips continues to set the industry standard for developing innovative products that help treat patients and save lives."
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About the Author
Jesse Fisher enjoys writing articles for his clients. He serves as trafficmaster for TransAmerican Medical, the largest independent provider of refurbished Philips medical equipment, systems and parts. This article may be republished online if reproduced in its entirety.
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