Phillips to innovate healthcare, electronic products for India

BANGALORE - Global electronics major Phillips will develop a range of healthcare and consumer electronic products for the growing Indian market by innovating new technologies at its research and development lab here, a top company official said Wednesday.

“We have drawn an action plan to develop cutting edge technologies for the healthcare sector, consumer electronics and lighting at our innovation campus, specifically for the Indian market that is opening up for innovative products,” Phillips Innovation Campus chief executive Wido Menhardt told reporters.

As one of the Phillips’ leading research labs worldwide, the Bangalore facility designs and develops new software applications and services that go into the Dutch company’s range of products in healthcare, consumer electronics and lighting.

“With 1,400 software engineers, we have innovated and patented about 50 new technologies for our portfolio of medical systems such as CT (computed tomography) scan, x-ray, ultrasound, magnetic resonance, patient monitoring and information management,” said Menhardt, who moved to Bangalore from the Silicon Valley in the US.

As a division of Philips Electronics India Ltd, the Indian subsidiary of the Royal Philips Electronics NV, the Netherlands, is ramping up its headcount by 15 percent to have about 1600 software techies by year-end and investing in campus infrastructure.

The innovation team here developed a software tool that is embedded on the top of a CT scan to detect any anomaly or defect in the machine and relay the information to the service engineers located remotely for speedy response in trouble-shooting and component replacement at the customer’s onsite.

Similarly, the Bangalore lab contributed to Phillips’ global operations with new software and hardware products for interoperability in medical systems such as CT scan, radiation oncology systems and Positron Emission Tomography (PET).

“We provide end-to-end solutions, covering definition, architecture, design, development, integration, testing and on-site consultancy in the areas of oncology, cardiology and women’s healthcare,” Menhardt said.

Another focus area of innovation is to design an advanced image processing for detecting weak joints due to osteoporosis, a disease of bones that leads to an increased risk of fracture, especially in ageing women.

In the lighting segment, the campus will develop a range of digital lighting solutions for Indian and global markets using green technologies to ensure optimal lighting with energy efficiency.

GE Healthcare and Siemens are among the leading global firms that compete for the Indian market along with Philips.