With the healthcare sector across the world taking immense strain, GE Healthcare Monitoring Solutions is developing technology to try to alleviate some of the pressure. Global Vice President and General Manager Didier Deltort discusses the company’s focus and drives.

The Healthcare industry is in a state of change with developments in technology driving it forward. At the helm of these advancements is GE Healthcare Monitoring Solutions; Global Vice President and General Manager Didier Deltort joins me now.

The New Economy: Well Didier; what trends are reshaping healthcare, and how does this affect the patient?

Didier Deltort: Three are happening right now in the global markets, and three angles.

Number one is access. As you know, population is ageing, there is a rise of chronic diseases, and so on. So you’ve got a shortage of capacity almost everywhere and even more in emerging markets. So it puts tremendous pressure on the healthcare systems to cope with the burden around ageing population, chronic diseases.

The second one is quality of care. We’ve gained this throughput throughout the hospitals, it puts a lot of pressure on the length of stay, on infections, on early mobilisation of the patients. Every hospital around the world is looking at delivering care safely and more affordably.

And last but not least it’s the cost. It’s a perfect storm at the moment: governments in the developed world can’t afford the cost of healthcare anymore.

So tremendous pressure on access, safety and cost.

The New Economy: So the technology you are developing; how does this benefit the patient, the caregiver and ultimately the community?

Didier Deltort: We just discussed how more patients go through hospitals, at the same time quality and safety and cost having to be better.

We’ve been looking at the convergence between sensors, algorithms, mobile computing, telecommunications, as well as big data analytics to deliver better solutions.

The stuff we are working on is having more and more wearable solutions, which could be on the patients. And throughout the hospital stay, monitor the patient’s conditions. And really for the caregivers, being able to deliver meaningful treatments, and decide faster. At the same time allow the patients to leave the hospitals much earlier and therefore reduce the cost.

So again the convergence of those technologies, which did not exist five years ago, or three years ago; that’s what we are tapping into right now.

The New Economy: What is GE Healthcare doing to address the needs that are developing from the changing healthcare landscape?

Didier Deltort: Three things we’re doing. Number one: we are trying to broaden the portfolio, whether developing solutions in devices, medical diagnostics, pharmaceuticals and information technologies to really help caregivers to address the evolution of healthcare.

Two: we are trying to change the culture; with those rapid changes in societies and in different parts of the world. We are at the same time trying to come up with a FastWorks methodology, which is about bringing meaningful global and affordable solutions on a more repetitive rhythm, than just to come up with a new product every five years. And this is a big cultural change.

And last but not least, we are trying to partner with companies and start-ups and external partners so that we can accelerate product development. But the key word is outcome; it is not about developing boxes anymore. It’s about delivering better outcomes for the hospitals, and for the patients ultimately.

The New Economy: So what makes you different from the competition?

Didier Deltort: I think what makes us different is being part of the big GE: a big industrial and financial company which has a huge technology portfolio.

We can tap into fundamental research and developments; we can look at what some other industries like transportation, aviation, oil and gas, power and water are doing; because they are almost facing the same challenges. And we can tap into what they are doing and leverage the big GE.

At the same time, we try to be more nimble and agile, and develop solutions faster so the depth and breadth of the company, which helps us to differentiate ourselves. But with a very strong focus on healthcare, and a very strong history in delivering solutions for the healthcare industry.

The New Economy: You’re also dedicated to supporting start-ups with your Health Innovation Village; so what kind of companies are based there, and what breakthroughs have you seen?

Didier Deltort: What we were trying to do in Finland is to tap into an ecosystem of start-up companies.

Finland has been known for telecommunications and great inventions in IT and banking. There are at the moment more than 150 start-up companies which merged from telecommunications; and those companies are bringing a lot of technologies and know-how, which are needed to develop the wearable solutions we’re working on.

So we are hosting 20 start-up companies in our campus right now, and we are just focusing again on the sensors, algorithm, cloud services, big data analytics. And it’s amazing also to have those companies in our campus, and to have a very traditional engineering organisation meeting at the cafe for a coffee, and at the gym. And its the merger of those two types of culture which I believe in the mid- and long-term will bring better results.

The New Economy: So finally, what future innovations are in the pipeline?

Didier Deltort: What we are looking for ultimately are wearable technologies. But not those that you can see every weekend: the gadgets you know, which cost €99 each, and work fine on healthy patients, but do not work on very sick patients.

So we are looking at solutions which can work on the very sick patients, not so sick patients, and healthy patients: throughout the entire continuum of care. And for that again, you need to have super-small wearable technologies which can perform diagnostics, monitor patients for almost 24 hours a day. But at the same time be super light and affordable.

Take bulky, professional, expensive medical equipment, and make them much smaller, wearable, and affordable, so that we can expand the market and tackle some of the most pressing problems in both developed world and in the developing world.