Frans van Houten on COVID-19 response, recovery and the future during WEF’s live-streamed The Davos Agenda 2021

Estimated reading time: 1-3 minutes

During ‘The Davos Agenda 2021’ (January 25 - 29, 2021), which this year replaces the World Economic Forum’s usual January Annual Meeting because of current COVID-19 restrictions, Philips CEO Frans van Houten will join a select group of panelists to discuss the most effective response and recovery efforts to the pandemic and how business and governments can improve future collaboration to make sure that the world is better prepared for similar future catastrophes. He will be joined by H.E. Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister of Greece, Dr Anthony Fauci, Director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and Mrs Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association.

An industry perspective

As CEO of a global health technology company that not only provided key equipment, such as ventilators and patient monitors, to help care for COVID-19 patients, but also rapidly developed innovative telehealth solutions to remotely support patients, care teams and hospitals, Frans is in a unique position to offer a healthcare industry perspective on the events that unfolded in 2020 and some of the positive lessons that can be learned from them. For example, that dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic has been a major catalyst for positive healthcare industry change, advancing the acceptance and adoption of technology solutions that are pivotal to healthcare transformation. Looking forward, he will point to the need for greater resilience and flexibility in healthcare systems, the need to move care to lower cost community and home-based settings, and the power of data and artificial intelligence to make maximum use of limited healthcare resources. According to Frans, “healthcare is an investment that needs to be optimized, not a cost to be minimized.”

To view the livestream discussion on January 25, 2021, from 14.15 to 15.00 hours CET, visit https://www.weforum.org/events/the-davos-agenda-2021. Davos registered participants will be able to submit question to the panel. To view the discussion online after the event, click here.