Philips Secures Over 150 Orders for Premium Imaging Systems at China International Import Expo

Recently, VCBeat (WeChat Official Account: vcbeat) learned that the “First China International Import Expo” concluded successfully in Shanghai. As one of the largest exhibitors in the “Medical Devices and Pharmaceutical & Healthcare Products” zone, Philips drew significant attention for its integrated B2B and B2C business model, its comprehensive “Big Health” strategy covering the entire continuum of care, and the application of digitalization, artificial intelligence, and other technologies in the healthcare sector.

At the “Medical Devices and Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare Pavilion” of the China International Import Expo (CIIE), Philips showcased its latest high-end digital imaging equipment and intelligent information systems, including: IQon CT, the world’s first spectral detector-based CT scanner; Ingenia CX Ambition MRI; Vereos Digital PET/CT; and the EPIQ 7 premium ultrasound series, equipped with Anatomical Intelligence and featuring visualization and quantification capabilities.

During the six-day exhibition, these “precision diagnosis” tools, representing the most advanced technological level in today’s global diagnostic imaging field, were highly favored by the National Health Commission, procurement delegations from various provinces and municipalities, and hospitals at all levels across China. Purchase agreements for these high-end imaging devices alone exceeded 150 units.

IQon is the world’s first and only spectral detection CT scanner. IQon Spectral CT breaks through traditional CT detector hardware design by employing an industry-exclusive dual-layer stacked spectral resolution detector, thereby achieving the industry’s first “same source, simultaneous, same direction, and synchronized” four-simultaneity energy scanning. This innovation streamlines workflows, enabling energy-based imaging for all scans, and resolves many longstanding barriers that have limited the clinical adoption of energy CT. It fully realizes the routine clinical use of energy imaging and translates energy-based research into everyday clinical practice.

IQon CT bids farewell to the black-and-white era of CT imaging. By leveraging spectral detectors, it delivers more than five times the diagnostic information of conventional CT, enabling the detection of lesions missed by standard CT and achieving precise morphological and functional imaging for cardiovascular diseases and tumors. Clinical evidence demonstrates that the use of IQon Spectral CT can reduce repeat examinations by 45%, thereby lowering overall healthcare costs.

IQon Spectral CT not only routineizes cardiac energy scanning, but also, leveraging precise energy quantification and a suite of spectral analysis tools, enables comprehensive diagnostic information—including coronary morphology, in-stent restenosis, plaque characterization, cardiac function, and myocardial viability assessment—to be obtained from a single cardiac spectral scan. This redefines one-stop cardiac examination while achieving low-dose, low-contrast-agent cardiac spectral imaging.

Early detection of tumors, differentiation between benign and malignant lesions, staging, and follow-up of tumor treatment have always been the core components of oncologic imaging. The multi-parametric spectral diagnosis enabled by IQon Spectral CT allows for the acquisition of multiple accurate energy parameters in a single scan. This provides multi-phase and comprehensive diagnostic information throughout the entire cycle of tumor diagnosis and treatment. Particularly in the detection of occult lesions, characterization of suspicious metastases, and assessment of tumor activity, it offers volumetric quantitative analysis of lesions for clinical practice, thereby expanding the clinical and research value of CT.

Ingenia CX Light-Speed MRI achieves a perfect balance between MR speed and image quality. Whole-body compressed sensing imaging can accelerate MRI scans by several fold, enabling over 100 patients to be scanned per day—twice the capacity of conventional MRI systems—significantly enhancing diagnostic and treatment efficiency in Chinese hospitals.

Vereos Digital PET/CT, featuring Philips’ patented digital photon detector technology, eliminates the need for photomultiplier tubes by directly acquiring digital signals. It requires only one-tenth of the scan time and one-third of the radiopharmaceutical dose compared to conventional systems, enabling 8–10 patient scans per hour. As a core component of Philips’ comprehensive solutions for oncology, cardiovascular diseases, and other conditions, this PET/CT system has been installed in over 60 leading hospitals worldwide. Although not yet officially launched in China, it has already secured purchase intentions for nearly 10 units.

The all-new premium EPIQ 7 ultrasound series leverages Anatomical Intelligence to assist clinicians in performing more efficient and precise intelligent tissue identification, analysis, and abnormality diagnosis; assessing disease severity; determining personalized treatment plans; and guiding interventional procedures, including for infant patients weighing as little as 2.5 kg.

According to incomplete statistics, more than 200 hospitals signed on-site agreements with Philips at the China International Import Expo (CIIE). Although these agreements were primarily letters of intent for equipment procurement, most hospitals have urgent needs in building “Stroke Centers,” “Chest Pain Centers,” and “Integrated Platforms for Precision Oncology Diagnosis and Treatment.” Therefore, to address needs beyond equipment procurement, Philips is engaging in deeper discussions with its clients. By integrating connectivity, digitalization, and artificial intelligence technologies with clinical practice alongside the provision of medical devices, Philips is co-creating personalized “disease-specific solutions” with its customers, thereby comprehensively enhancing hospitals’ capabilities in diagnosis, treatment, and clinical research for key diseases.

Vereos Digital PET/CT, featuring Philips’ patented digital photon detector technology, eliminates the need for photonic-to-electronic conversion by directly acquiring digital signals. It requires only one-tenth of the scan time and one-third of the radiopharmaceutical dosage compared to conventional systems, enabling a throughput of 8–10 patients per hour. As a core component of Philips’ comprehensive solutions for oncology, cardiovascular diseases, and other conditions, this PET/CT system has been installed in over 60 leading hospitals worldwide, with more than 200 SCI-indexed papers published based on its use. Although not yet officially launched in China, it has already secured purchase intentions for nearly 10 units from on-site engagements.

Vereos All-Digital PET/CT, featuring Philips’ patented digital photon detectors, eliminates the need for photoelectric conversion by directly acquiring digital signals. It requires only one-tenth of the conventional scan time and one-third of the radiopharmaceutical dose, enabling a throughput of 8–10 patients per hour. As a core component of Philips’ comprehensive solutions for oncology, cardiovascular diseases, and other conditions, this PET/CT system has been installed in over 60 leading hospitals worldwide and has contributed to more than 200 SCI-indexed publications. Although not yet officially launched in China, it has already secured purchase intentions for nearly 10 units.

Philips Greater China CEO He Guowei stated, “As China’s healthcare reform deepens, the country’s healthcare system is building ‘integrated’ processes and models. To align with customers’ increasingly complex and comprehensive needs, Philips is gradually transforming its business model from traditional ‘equipment sales’ to ‘solutions,’ addressing customers’ pain points and needs to become their long-term ‘partner.’”

In addition to medical devices, the application of technologies such as connectivity, digitalization, and artificial intelligence in the healthcare sector has emerged as another key area of innovation prominently showcased by Philips at the China International Import Expo (CIIE). Centered on the concept of “end-to-end health care,” holistic solutions targeting three major disease areas served as the central theme and a major highlight of Philips’ exhibition booth.

As a global leader in the fields of cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and oncology care, Philips brings its world-leading innovative technologies to China. Addressing the pain points and needs of China’s healthcare system, Philips has engaged in extensive and in-depth collaborations in clinical research and business models with government entities, hospitals at all levels, professional societies, universities, research institutions, and local innovative enterprises. This effort delivers comprehensive, disease-specific solutions covering the entire patient journey for “Chest Pain Centers,” “Stroke Centers,” and “Oncology Centers” at every level of care.

In the field of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health, Philips not only offers products and applications that empower individuals to better manage their own health—such as those for oral health, dietary wellness, and air quality—but also provides digital devices and integrated intelligent information systems across every stage of care, including pre-hospital emergency response, early disease screening, precision diagnosis, personalized treatment, patient monitoring, post-discharge health management, and rehabilitation. These solutions assist physicians in enhancing diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities while improving hospital operational efficiency.

The oncology field faces numerous challenges. Philips focuses on integrating artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies with clinical expertise in this disease area. Through “breakthrough innovations,” it aims to explore methods for early cancer detection, enhance the accuracy of initial diagnoses, and deliver more effective healthcare services to patients at lower costs through personalized, minimally invasive interventional therapies. Its key areas of focus include natural language processing, big data mining and analysis, construction of structured clinical databases, image recognition, AI-assisted imaging diagnosis, interventional therapy, and genomics.

Therefore, as an innovation company focused on “HealthTech,” Philips aims to address the challenge of unlocking the value of the vast amounts of data in the healthcare sector. By leveraging efficient computing and precise analytical decision-making, it seeks to transform “big data” into “big insights,” thereby enhancing the value of healthcare systems.

For example, the “Smart Health Platform” launched by Philips at the China International Import Expo is a one-stop system that assists physicians in more efficiently collecting, managing, visualizing, and analyzing patient data. It comprises four core functional modules: direct data reporting, timeline management, data integration, and quality control dashboards. This platform helps hospitals standardize information integration in accordance with industry standards, facilitates direct quality-control reporting, and thereby enhances both clinical care quality and research capabilities.

On November 8, five parties—the China Cardiovascular Alliance, Xiamen Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission, the Cardiovascular Hospital of Xiamen University, Digital China Medical Technology Co., Ltd., and Philips (China) Investment Co., Ltd.—jointly signed a strategic cooperation memorandum at the China International Import Expo to launch pilot collaboration on the establishment of a “Big Data Center for Clinical Quality Control in Cardiovascular Care.”

This pilot project will leverage Xiamen Cardiovascular Hospital to design a high-quality, comprehensive, and structured cardiovascular data collection system and clinical quality assessment system, facilitating appropriate data sharing with other participating medical institutions. The objective is to establish a high-quality, complete, and structured big data center for cardiovascular health and healthcare, based on a cloud platform and covering all pilot medical institutions through collaborative interconnectivity. Building on this foundation, advanced technological tools will be employed to help medical institutions effectively analyze and utilize big data, thereby supporting clinical decision-making, healthcare quality improvement, disease early warning, clinical research, and personalized treatment.

As a “health tech” company, Philips has leveraged its years of consumer insights to play a pivotal role in “whole-journey health care,” embodying the “big health” philosophy that “the finest physicians prevent disease before it arises.” By integrating consumers’ healthy lifestyles with professional medical care, Philips has established a unique advantage in the “health tech” sector.

At the China International Import Expo (CIIE), Philips showcased its innovative products and solutions in the fields of oral health, nutritional health, respiratory health, sleep health, skin health, and maternal and infant health. This provided attendees with a fresh perspective on Philips’ strategic positioning as a “Health Technology” company—transforming from its former household reputation in “consumer electronics” to become an expert in “healthcare and well-being” across people’s “entire life journey.”

Philips has long maintained close collaborations with various retail enterprises. During the China International Import Expo, on November 6, Philips signed a “Strategic Cooperation Memorandum” with Suning Holdings Group Co., Ltd., one of China’s largest retail companies, covering product procurement and other forms of cooperation for its consumer personal health products over the next three years. Both parties are committed to further integrating their advantageous resources and engaging in extensive and in-depth cooperation in areas such as e-commerce, marketing, and technology research and development.