Phillips implements news business model in the Brazilian market
Gazeta Mercantil - 03/19/2008
In order to put into practice Royal Philips Electronics' global strategy of enlarging its businesses in the medical area - the sector that currently presents the greatest profitability for the company and is the second in sales - and seeking greater growth in emerging countries, the division of medical systems of the Dutch company is adopting a new model of business in Brazil that aims, mainly, at increasing the sales to the public health system and to private hospitals and clinics which lack technology but have little resources for investment. The subsidiary company has just finished implementing, in the Clinics Hospital (HC - Hospital das Clínicas, in Portuguese) of the College of Medicine of the University of São Paulo, a system for the storage and digital distribution of medical images that, besides the digital X-ray equipment and the information technology platform, involved the supply of management consulting, with suggestions that go from the diagnosis of the necessities and the improvement of the productivity to strategic planning for the client. The system was initially implemented in the Institute of Radiology of HC (InRad), which carries out near 40 thousand monthly exams. In three months, it will be extended to the Heart Institute (Incor) and to the Oncology Center. Until the end of the year the whole HC complex, which performs close to 800 thousand X-ray exams a year, should be integrated to the digital system. The investment in the project was close to R$ 5 million (US$ 2.84 million), and there is the expectation of an economy of nearly R$ 1.5 million (US$ 852.3 thousand) a year with the elimination of costs with the purchase of films and development, besides a 30% gain in productivity. According to Philips Healthcare's Vice-President for Latin America, Daurio Speranzini, the Brazilian market of digital X-ray still has great potential to be explored, since most of the health network still uses the analogical system. According to Speranzini, Philips is the only manufacturer of digital X-ray in Brazil and its equipment has a competitive price: it costs around US$ 130 thousand, that is, about one-third of the price of an imported device and it is 2.5 times more expensive compared to the traditional analogical system.