Nearly a decade ago, Royal Philips Electronics fathered Philips Healthcare Services and appears determined that their subsidiary will soon become King of the medical equipment industry. Apparently, this move was in response to GE Medical Systems' announcement that it planned on becoming king itself of the ultrasound industry before the year 2000. Not to be outdone, Philips from the first year started an acquisition frenzy in order to expand its subsidiary's product portfolio well beyond its initial product line, which started in 1918 with medical x-ray tubes.

Concluding Philips Healthcare Services first year, Philips Electronics added digital ultrasound systems to PHS's portfolio by getting ATL Ultrasound of Washington. Only 2 years later, in late 2000, Philips grew into nuclear medicine by absorbing ADAC Laboratories of California.


In 2001 was a watershed year as Philips shifted into high gear by obtaining two more businesses and their product lines - Agilent and Marconi Medical. By procuring Agilent Technologies Healthcare Solutions Group of Massachusetts, Philips catapulted past GE Medical as the leader of the ultrasound sector. Philips took in Agilent's expertise in the areas of diagnostic cardiology, automated defibrillators, patient monitoring, and point of care diagnostic systems.

Marconi Medical Systems of Ohio, formerly Picker International, was already a big part in its own right among major global CT suppliers. With Marconi, Philips obtained cutting-edge multi-slice CT technology along with cardiology, oncology and PET/CT imaging applications. These 2 acquisitions in one year landed Philips in the top 3 for the entire medical equipment industry together with giants Siemens and GE Medical - there are those who say as number 2.

In 2005, the expansion kept going as Philips purchased Stentor, Inc. of California, provider best-in-class picture archiving and communications systems (PACS). This let Philips to help its clients successfully manage the many amounts of imaging data created by its medical scanners. Then, the following year, the expansion continued as Philips adopted Witt Biomedical Corporation, the largest independent supplier of Cath Lab monitoring and reporting systems.

In its pursuit to become King of the Medical Equipment industry, Philips Healthcare Services has acquired 6 businesses since its inception in 1998. Every single one of the 6 has extended Philips' offerings to include a total of ten medical imaging modalities, from CT to MRI to x-ray, together with defibrillation and cardiac monitoring equipment in addition to image and information management solutions.

So, has Philips arrived at the royal industry castle yet? Some believe so. As a matter of fact, prior to the last 2 acquisitions, Palo Alto's "growth consulting" business Frost & Sullivan seemed to think so. In 2004 Frost & Sullivan told everyone they were awarding Philips five, count them, 5 awards for "technology and services innovation and industry leadership". Philips was recognized for giving distinguished contributions to the cardiac resuscitation and medical imaging industries and for providing leadership in these market segments.

Was Frost & Sullivan simply searching for a spot at the royal court or were these genuine kudos? Probably the later. F&S conducted interviews with a myriad of market players along with their customers and suppliers, and reportedly did a great deal of research into the medical equipment technology field.

One of the many awards involved the regent-like titles of "Medical Imaging Company of the Year", "New Care Setting of the Year", and "Medical Imaging Technology of the Year". The other 2 were for Technology Leadership and Services Innovation Leadership.

The response of Jouko Karvinen, president of Philips Medical Systems, to the what he recieved sounded like the exact same of an industry coronation speech. He stated, "We proudly accept the Frost Sullivan Awards as an independent validation of Philips business and technology leadership. These five awards are further indicators that Philips continues to set the industry standard for developing innovative products that help treat patients and save lives."

Royal Philips. Long live our King!

Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com/Article/The-Supreme-Ruler-of-Medical-Equipment--Royal-Philips/338314