Philips Greater China VP Mao Weifang: Breaking Spatial Barriers in Healthcare Through Connected Care

In the perception of many patients, “seeking medical care” and “taking medication” are two separate stages. Seeking medical care refers to the act of going to a hospital for examination and treatment, while taking medication is what follows after the consultation, representing the patient’s self-management of their condition after leaving the hospital.

Within the healthcare system, diagnosis and treatment have always been an integrated process, without a clear distinction between preceding and subsequent stages. However, due to the lack of tools that connect in-hospital treatment with post-discharge management, patients often experience an illusion of "fragmentation," confining their perception of treatment to specific scenarios within specialized settings.

This illusion is increasingly revealing its sharp edge due to the growing number of high-risk elderly patients: they may suffer from multiple chronic diseases, requiring both emergency medical services from hospitals and meticulous daily care. Their treatment occurs not only in hospitals but also outside them, yet remains disconnected from hospital systems.

In early 2019, in response to various challenges, Philips Healthcare restructured its existing business architecture, spinning off the “Connected Care” module as an independent unit. Since then, Philips Healthcare has further intensified its investment in health informatics and connectivity, aiming to break down the barriers between in-hospital and out-of-hospital care, bridge the missing “connectivity” link in the integrated diagnosis and treatment workflow, and enable patients to access healthcare services anywhere.

How to Deliver Optimal Diagnostic and Treatment Outcomes?

“Connected Care” is a healthcare solution developed by Philips that integrates connectivity, digitalization, and artificial intelligence technologies to enable interconnected health information. It seamlessly connects in-hospital and out-of-hospital services, eliminates information asymmetry, and establishes a true network of medical care.

Within the hospital, Philips strives to overcome the limitations of single-channel information by collecting, organizing, and facilitating unified data analysis for healthcare professionals, as well as optimizing workflows. For instance, through wireless biosensors, monitoring devices, and the interoperability of critical imaging data, Philips supports clinical decision-making across various stages of patient care.

Outside the hospital setting, Philips leverages its health management platform to streamline treatment processes and enhance care quality, while enabling greater integration with broader out-of-hospital chronic disease care ecosystems, including those for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), sleep disorders, cardiovascular conditions, diabetes, maternal and child health, and oncology.

“We have been contemplating what Philips’ technology can truly enable hospitals and governments to achieve,” said Mao Weifang, Vice President of Philips Greater China and General Manager of the Connected Care Business Group, in an interview. “Data generated by various imaging devices, as well as data from patient monitors and ventilators, all originate from patients. Hospitals accumulate vast amounts of such information, but the key question is: how can this data be effectively leveraged for hospital operations?”

Mao Weifang, Vice President of Philips Greater China and General Manager of the Connected Care Business Group

Connected Care can provide a solution to this issue. In simple terms, Philips adopts a patient-centric approach, continuously collecting diagnostic and treatment data. By leveraging a cloud platform, it connects data generated across hospitals, homes, and community rehabilitation centers, enabling standardized and unified management across different settings.

Mao Weifang cited emergency patient care as an example: “Currently, the hospital admission time for emergency patients is typically recorded from the moment they enter the ambulance, a concept known as ‘admission upon boarding.’ Once on board, well-prepared physicians rapidly monitor and record the patient’s vital signs—such as their current condition, the number of defibrillation shocks delivered, the duration of each shock, and the length of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)—to further formulate a treatment plan. However, in the future, supported by Internet of Things (IoT) technology, patients will be integrated into the smart emergency care system from the very moment an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) begins analyzing their heart rhythm, enabling them to receive our optimal connected care solutions. In other words, through connected care solutions, we can significantly advance the ‘time of admission.’ This means that patients will have a greater likelihood of receiving life-saving intervention within the ‘golden hour.’”

Beyond the heart, another key area of focus for Philips Connected Care is sleep.

“China has a large population of patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), some of whom require continuous treatment with sleep ventilators, representing another scenario that demands end-to-end monitoring. In the past, patients needed to visit sleep diagnostic centers regularly to assess treatment efficacy. However, supported by Philips’ sleep ventilators and connected care solutions, patients can now share their treatment data with physicians, enabling timely adjustments to their therapy plans based on treatment progress.”

In this process, connected care brings about the optimization of the entire diagnosis and treatment workflow. Within the same timeframe, physicians can attend to more patients in need of treatment, while those who have already received a diagnosis also benefit by no longer needing to make frequent trips to the hospital.

Overall, innovations in cardiac care and sleep medicine reflect the fundamental logic of connected care solutions: medical practice is no longer bounded by the divide between in-hospital and out-of-hospital settings, but instead focuses on delivering optimal diagnostic and therapeutic outcomes, thereby ensuring that patients receive continuous care throughout their entire health journey—this is also Philips’ ultimate vision.

Connectivity First, Care Second

Building interconnected care solutions in the fields of cardiology and sleep is a lengthy, cumulative process. To achieve such care, connectivity must first be established. However, collecting full-cycle data for individual patients is not straightforward. The issue of data silos has been discussed for two decades; its root cause lies in the lack of a universally accepted data standard, which results in the inability of data generated by various hospital devices to interconnect.

Further consideration reveals that differentiated data formats arise from various devices involved in the same diagnostic workflow, as well as from different brands associated with the same device. To achieve interoperability of patient data across the entire care continuum and leverage it for subsequent processing and analysis, enterprises must first establish data bridges.

“There are no shortcuts to achieving interoperability. Data collection and standardization rigorously test a company’s comprehensive capabilities; we have broken this down into two components to address them systematically, thereby advancing data interoperability step by step,” explained Mao Weifang.

“First, let’s look at the hospital segment. In this scenario, data generated by devices from each manufacturer can often only be integrated with other proprietary devices from the same vendor. Taking the ICU as an example, there are numerous instruments in this setting; however, in the past, Philips was largely able to connect only to its own monitors and information systems. Even if monitors from other companies could be connected, the data obtained would have limited clinical value.”

In March 2021, Philips acquired Capsule Technologies, a digital healthcare services provider, for $635 million to address this very issue. Capsule can connect more than 940 types of medical devices and equipment, providing healthcare institutions with proactive digital monitoring workflows.

Following its acquisition, Philips is able to structure data from a wide variety of instruments and conduct unified analysis through its platform. After all, clinical decision support based on multimodal big data is what truly meets clinical needs.

“Next is connecting with out-of-hospital care. Philips does not cover certain devices; for instance, if a patient has a cardiac pacemaker installed, how can remote monitoring be provided? This requires seeking new partners.”

In the month prior to proposing the acquisition of Capsule, Philips acquired the U.S.-based BioTelemetry Inc. for $2.8 billion. BioTelemetry’s system collects data from implantable cardiac devices, such as pacemakers and defibrillators, manufactured by renowned companies worldwide, consolidates this data into a unified platform, and generates structured reports. Through this approach, Philips has been progressively strengthening its patient lifecycle data collection capabilities within the cardiology sector.

Of course, all Philips solutions are built on the foundation of information security, ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of critical clinical and personal data throughout the entire care lifecycle. At Philips, security is always the top priority—encompassing not only cybersecurity but also infrastructure and data protection. From design and development to testing and deployment, Philips IntelliSpace Critical Care and Acute Care (CCAC) systems and next-generation bedside monitors have cybersecurity features embedded within them to safeguard patient information both inside and outside the enterprise.

From “Local for Local” to “Local for Global”

From the development path of its Connected Care Cardiology segment, Philips has demonstrated a propensity for using acquisitions to incrementally complete its strategic portfolio. However, viewed from the perspective of Philips’ global layout, mergers and acquisitions represent merely one of the key strategies it employs.

Returning to the Chinese market, Philips has recently emphasized localization as its core theme—namely, understanding China’s unique differences, identifying the specific clinical needs in the country, determining what is best for patients, and then addressing these needs through localized technologies and support.

“Taking patient monitors as an example, Philips boasts a comprehensive portfolio of high-end devices. In contrast, China has a vast primary healthcare market, where the demand for cost-effective products often remains unmet,” said Mao Weifang.

Therefore, Philips’ China R&D Center adopts a “Local for Local” strategy, independently developing or collaborating with domestic enterprises to create localized connected care products and technologies. These innovations are designed to prioritize meeting the clinical needs of Chinese patients, and are subsequently supplied to developing countries with similar demands, following the “Local for Global” approach.

Of course, the healthcare ecosystem can never be built by a single entity alone. Therefore, Philips has established a partner ecosystem and positioned itself as an “incubator” for innovative technologies in China.

In Mao Weifang’s view: “Whether it is Internet-based care or other modules, we will remain committed to identifying technologies that are valuable yet struggle to survive due to funding shortages, providing them with the momentum needed for development. Through collaborative efforts, we will jointly advance the construction of smart hospitals and serve patients, striving to build a more efficient and inclusive healthcare system.”