A female leader in the tech industry, Liat Ben-Zur has a string of formidable accomplishments to her name, including co-founding the AllSeen Alliance, a cross-industry consortium driving an open-source language for IoT. At Philips, she plays a key role in spearheading a new direction: driving connectivity and digital strategy across the company.
The move to Philips proved to be a meaningful one for Liat, adding an unexpected extra dimension to her career: “It’s an amazing opportunity to differentiate from typical Silicon Valley tech firms that are great innovators and know how to run fast, but struggle to build highly-secured solutions in highly-regulated medical environments.”
Her current leadership role is completely in tune with her core passion and drive: “I get energy from emerging enabling technologies that can disrupt industries. I like finding the magic in technology.” And, based on current rapid developments, it looks like there is plenty of magic ahead.
It’s an amazing opportunity to differentiate from typical Silicon Valley tech firms
One crucial development that Liat sees for the future is continuous, unobtrusive monitoring. But that generates a lot of data. The question of what happens to that data is increasingly important in an age that is already seeing a surge in monitoring equipment and healthcare apps.
“Today, when you get blood work, or a CT scan, where does that data live? Or what about the data you collect on your latest sleep patterns or exercise routine? All this data lives in different silos, managed by different companies in different clouds, or worse yet, in different filing cabinets in different hospital systems.”
It is imperative that consumers own their data and decide how it should be used, Liat believes. To address this, Philips created the HealthSuite Digital Platform, which is of medical grade and compliant with the HIPAA standard for protecting sensitive patient data.
The platform ensures that people can control who sees which data and when. An ecosystem of connected products, programs and services, HealthSuite is designed to paint a picture of our wellbeing in a holistic way, from hospital data and images, to our IoT devices and wearables at home, creating a longitudinal record of our personal health. “This is something that every consumer should be demanding,” Liat says. HealthSuite is an open platform, as Philips believes in supporting innovation in healthcare and solutions that go far beyond the company itself.
I get energy from emerging technologies that can disrupt industries
When it comes to life-changing IoT, uGrow by Philips is another good example of things to come. “It’s Philips baby app that hooks up to various connected devices, giving personalized advice. The aim is to support parents and their baby’s healthy development with relevant articles and insights from a panel of healthcare professionals.”
The app is currently focused on helping mothers after they give birth, but this type of platform could also come to be used for pregnant women, helping to identify risks and deliver personal coaching and guidance.
The great benefit of connectivity is that access to healthcare becomes less dependent on geographical location. “IoT and connected health can make a huge difference in developing countries,” Liat says. As part of a case study in Indonesia, Philips developed a telehealth platform for expectant mothers to access those in difficult-to-reach rural communities. As Liat points out, 96% of the world’s population has access to a cell phone, so telehealth is very promising.
“Within the first three months of introducing mobile obstetrical monitoring, the pilot project identified 60 out of 500 expectant mothers as having high-risk pregnancies. They were given treatment and care that they otherwise would not have received, thereby reducing unnecessary maternal and fetal mortality.”
It’s never about the tech – it’s what you do with it.
Imagine a connected tattoo that can change color on the skin based on hydration and blood sugar levels. Sound futuristic? It’s already here, and was developed by MIT. New technology can drive a whole new range of applications, but as Liat says, it’s important to remember: “It’s never about the tech – it’s what you do with it.” This is something she feels strongly about and is at the heart of Philips’ health-tech vision.
“Whether it’s IoT, AI, ambient intelligence, Blockchain, augmented reality, 3D printing, ingestibles, or next generation-technology breakthroughs in genomics, what matters is how companies use these innovations to create meaningful solutions that you and I and my mom and your dad might be able to use. How does it improve our lives?” For Liat, this is where the real disruption will happen. Bring it on.
September 01, 2020
April 06, 2020
