Sep 19, 2017

Philips launches new Singapore program to ensure healthy lives for all

“Better Me, Better World” initiative is part of United Nations General Assembly Week pledge to improve access to healthcare

Singapore – Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, is reinforcing its commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by launching a new program in Singapore that is designed to improve access to healthcare.

The Better Me, Better World platform, which launches today, will give Singaporean consumers the opportunity to vote on the health and healthcare causes that Philips will support through the work of its Philips Foundation in 2018, as well as access to a range of personal benefits.

Addressing health topics ranging from community access to healthcare, first aid training and ensuring healthy lifestyles for children are at the heart of the Philips Foundation’s mission to reduce health inequality through meaningful innovation. It does this by deploying the expertise, knowledge and innovative skills of Philips in collaborative projects with humanitarian organizations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross to design, adopt and deploy solutions that are sustainable and inclusive.

Singaporean consumers who use the platform to cast their vote on the initiatives that the Philips Foundation will support will also be rewarded with personal benefits to help them lead healthier lives too – such as discounts on their next purchase at the Philips online store.

At Philips we believe there’s always a way to make life better,” said Frans van Houten, CEO of Royal Philips. “This is why we set out to improve the lives of 3 billion people each year by 2025. We are already well on our way, having touched the lives of 2.1 billion people in the last year. We strongly believe that through the use of technology and responsible leadership, we can help increase access to quality healthcare and improve health outcomes for all.”

Frans van Houten

CEO of Royal Philips

Increasing pledge to support access to healthcare

Royal Philips is reinforcing its commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by launching a series of global programs that enable and strengthen access to healthcare around the world. To achieve this impact Philips is teaming up with governments and NGOs, clinical customers, consumers and others.

In South East Asia, Philips launched the Mobile Obstetrics Monitoring (MOM) solution, aimed at reducing maternal mortality by enabling healthcare systems to give expectant mothers access to high-quality healthcare wherever they are.

The first full-scale implementation of this connected health solution was in the Sijunjung district of West Sumatra Province, Indonesia in January 2016 following a one-year pilot program. Earlier, during the pilot in Padang Indonesia, in collaboration with the Bunda Medical Center, MOM helped increase early detection of high-risk pregnancies by three fold. Furthermore, of the 650 pregnant women enrolled in the pilot, no fatalities from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth were encountered.

The MOM service features two mobile phone apps, as well as training and education. The first app allows midwives to collect vital measurement data such as weight, blood pressure and temperature, and sync it to the MOM web portal. The second app allows doctors to track data and review a woman’s pregnancy condition remotely. Specialists at regional primary care centers can also access the data via a MOM web portal to monitor women’s conditions and assess high-risk pregnancies via a dashboard interface. Recently in July 2017, three more healthcare centers in the provinces of Papua and North Sulawesi, Indonesia have implemented the MOM solution with a total 263 registered patients.

About Royal Philips

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people's health and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips' health technology portfolio generated 2016 sales of EUR 17.4 billion and employs approximately 70,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at www.philips.com/newscenter.

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