BERLIN: Healthcare access will be one of the biggest challenges facing the world in the coming years, Philips CEO Roy Jakobs told The Global Envoy in an exclusive conversation with Rohan Dua at the World Health Summit, underlining the need to build resilient healthcare systems and harness artificial intelligence to improve patient care.
Jakobs said Philips is now focused on helping hospitals maintain safe and resilient operations while enabling doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals to spend more time with patients.
“The big challenge will be access to healthcare,” Jakobs told The Global Envoy.
He said technology, including AI, could help healthcare institutions improve operational efficiency and ensure that medical professionals could devote more time to caring for patients.
Jakobs also emphasised the importance of international cooperation in making healthcare more accessible, ensuring that countries could benefit from scientific advances and translate them into better patient outcomes.
“This is about how we work across countries to actually keep healthcare global, accessible, benefiting from the latest of science to actually improve patient care across every nation,” he said.
Philips invests approximately $1.8 billion annually in research and development, Jakobs said, highlighting the company’s commitment to advancing healthcare technology and innovation.
Discussing recent partnership between EU and India, Jakobs said the company remained enthusiastic about the market and was investing across manufacturing, software development, artificial intelligence and services in India.
“I’m very excited about India,” he said. “We are investing in India. We have thousands of people in India, both in terms of manufacturing and software and AI, as well as in our services.”
Jakobs said Philips wanted to strengthen its efforts to serve Indian patients and healthcare providers, adding that the company was looking to build on its existing presence in the country.
Asked whether he would be visiting India soon, the Philips CEO replied: “I will be in India very soon, actually.”
Jakobs’ remarks come amid growing global attention on the need to make healthcare systems more resilient, improve access to medical services and ensure that advances in technology benefit patients across countries and income groups.
