Hospital and health system leaders want to invest in technologies and equipment that can improve patient care, clinician satisfaction and operational efficiencies. However, these solutions often come with a hefty price tag, and most hospitals and health systems are operating under considerable margin pressure. In this environment, leaders must be discerning when making investment decisions.
Karim Boussebaa, general manager for Computed Tomography and Advanced Molecular Imaging businesses in Diagnostic Imaging at Philips, said today's healthcare providers need long-term commitments from technology partners that can offer solutions with a proven ability to enhance outcomes and reduce costs. Here, Mr. Boussebaa discusses today's healthcare financial environment and how new imaging technologies can support better care outcomes.
Editor's note: Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
Question: How is today's healthcare financial environment impacting C-suite agendas and imaging purchasing decisions?
Karim Boussebaa: There is a much more intense focus around making sure there's a clear return on investment for every purchase decision an executive makes. Whether it's buying equipment or investing in capital expenditures, it's important that leaders have a firm grasp of the influence the investment will have on their operations from both a financial and clinical perspective.
With regards to imaging, there isn't a C-suite leader who isn't looking at cost and outcomes when assessing investments in solutions. They want to know two things: 'How is your equipment going to help me reduce my costs?' And, 'How is your equipment going to allow me to achieve the best clinical outcome?'
Q: How can imaging investments lower total cost of ownership and provide clinical, operational and business benefits?
KB: When we develop a new piece of imaging equipment, we develop it as an end-to-end solution that we plan to support for the lifetime of the product. There are some imaging components - such as the CT tube - that are fairly expensive to replace, across all imaging providers. The reliability of our CT scanner and potential TCO savings for not having to replace the tube over a ten-year useful life period is significant. With Philips Incisive CT, hospitals can keep control of operational costs such as tube life that can then be reinvested into patient care. Incisive CT also offers upgradeable systems technology so that hospitals can purchase what they need now with an easy path to add up-to-date features as their clinical needs evolve. This enables hospitals to stay clinically advanced while maximizing their imaging investment with a right-sized solution.
Also, with regards to something like Spectral CT technology, which we have in our IQon Elite Spectral CT, the technology itself enhances a confident diagnosis, which can have profound implications on a hospital from a financial perspective. If a provider misses a diagnosis the first time around, it can result in additional follow up scans and more expensive treatment. The hospital will bear a measure of responsibility for that cost. The technology also streamlines workflows and increases the speed at which a diagnosis is given, which supports lower total cost of ownership as it improves overall efficiencies in care delivery.
Q: With the emphasis on value-based care intensifying, do you believe operational efficiency and reliability will become even more critical in technology investment?
KB: I do. There's a parallel with the car industry that I think applies here. When our parents bought a car, they expected it to break down and to take it to a garage on a regular basis — even within the first year of owning the car. Today that's totally unacceptable. When we buy a car now, we expect 100 percent reliability for at least three to five years.
The dynamic is similar in healthcare. CT systems, for example, are expected to work 24/7. At many organizations, there's no second CT system, so they cannot afford to have a system go down. Reliability is incredibly important when it comes to equipment purchasing decisions. As for operational efficiency, providers need solutions that work fast. They want to be able to come in, put the patient on the table, press the button and have the whole process work with minimal intervention. That's why we are developing a lot of workflow improvement tools. Artificial intelligence is becoming a much bigger component of this. So are analytics.
We have a tool called PerformanceBridge that we developed to conduct an analysis of the workflow in a hospital. Based on that analysis, we develop proposals on how to improve the system either in the next product design or on the ground in the hospital by telling the users, 'Hey, you could improve your workflow by doing this instead of how you're using the system right now.'
Q: Looking to the future, what's important for healthcare leaders to know about how AI or other technology advancements might shape precision diagnosis and improve imaging outcomes?
KB: AI is becoming part of our everyday work and there is a huge expectation that it will help transform how we deliver care. There are three main problem areas we are using AI to develop solutions: first, improve image quality, leading to a better diagnosis; second, simplify the image reading process by offloading the repetitive work; and third, improve the patient workflow by simplifying the various steps. AI will help clinicians dramatically improve productivity levels by completing a lot of the grunt work automatically, allowing them to focus on more critical tasks. This will result in better care delivery in a faster way and with less stress.
There is more and more to do in healthcare now, and it's not going to slow down. We have to find ways to help providers become more efficient.