The Supreme Ruler of Medical Equipment- Royal Philips

In 1998, Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands fathered Philips Healthcare Services and appears determined that their subsidiary 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 "out-royaled", Philips from the beginning year started an acquisition frenzy in order to expand its subsidiary's product portfolio well beyond its original product line, which started in 1918 with medical x-ray tubes.

At the end of Philips Healthcare Services beginning year, Philips Electronics added digital ultrasound systems to PHS's portfolio by acquiring ATL Ultrasound of Washington. Only two years after, in late 2000, Philips grew into nuclear medicine by absorbing ADAC Laboratories of California.

In 2001 was a very productive year as Philips shifted into a very high gear by bringing on two more companies and their product lines - Agilent and Marconi Medical. By procuring Agilent Technologies Healthcare Solutions Group of Massachusetts, Philips catapulted 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 part in its own right among gigantinc global CT suppliers. With Marconi, Philips gained cutting-edge multi-slice CT technology along with cardiology, oncology and PET/CT imaging applications. These two aquirements in one year put Philips in the top three for all of the medical equipment industry together with giants Siemens and GE Medical - some say as number two.

In 2005, the growth continued as Philips bought Stentor, Inc. of California, provider of best-in-class picture archiving and communications systems (PACS). This move allowed Philips to help its clients successfully control the voluminous amounts of imaging data created by its medical scanners. Then, the next year, the growth continued as Philips adopted Witt Biomedical Corporation, the largest independent supplier of Cath Lab monitoring and reporting systems.

In its quest to become King of the Medical Equipment industry, Philips Healthcare Services has obtained 6 companies since its inception in 1998. Every single one of the 6 has expanded Philips' offerings to include a total of 10 medical imaging modalities, from CT to MRI to x-ray, together with defibrillation and cardiac monitoring equipment in addition to image and information management solutions.

So the question is, has Philips moved into the royal industry castle yet? Some think they have. As a matter of fact, before the last two acquisitions, Palo Alto's "growth consulting" company Frost & Sullivan seemed to think so. In 2004 Frost & Sullivan announced they were awarding Philips five, count them, FIVE awards for "technology and services innovation and industry leadership". Philips was honored for making distinguished contributions to the cardiac resuscitation and medical imaging industries and for providing leadership in these market segments.

Was Frost & Sullivan just searching for a spot at the royal court or were these legitimate kudos? Doubtless the latter. F&S held interviews with many market players and their customers and suppliers, and apparently did great research into the medical equipment technology field.

One of the many 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 two were for Technology Leadership and Services Innovation Leadership.

The response of Jouko Karvinen, president and CEO of Philips Medical Systems, to the awards sounded like the exact same of an industry coronation speech. He stated, "We proudly recieve the Frost Sullivan Awards as an independent validation of Philips business and technology leadership. These 5 awards are further indicators that Philips continues to set the industry standard for developing innovative products that help treat patients and save lives."

NOTE: Use of this article requires links to be intact.

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.

Enter your search terms Submit search form