Real Change in Healthcare Happens from the Insight Out

Healthcare reform is complicated. To truly deliver impactful change in healthcare we must first intimately understand it. Unfortunately, sometimes what drives key aspects of the standard of care or incentives for people working inside healthcare has a lot more to do with those working outside of healthcare. Most of us are familiar with the word “gemba” a Japanese term meaning “the actual place” and in business, it refers to the place where value is created. The concept underscores the idea that it’s hard to create value in healthcare if you haven’t actually been there - walking the halls of a hospital wing, treating patients or looking at thousands of images to make a diagnosis.

In diagnostic imaging at Philips, we’ve always tried to do just that, understand the needs and challenges of all the stakeholders in the imaging system including technologists, radiologists, radiology administrators and c-suite executives. Their day-to-day clinical and operational insight is essential to make sure our imaging innovation maps back to what they need to do their jobs better, safely and cost-effectively with less stress and in a more patient-centric way. But, we didn’t have that direct clinician insider embedded in our Diagnostic Imaging Business Group team on a 24/7 basis – until now. 

Last month’s announcement that Dr. Chip Truwit joined our Philips Diagnostic Imaging Business Group as Chief Medical Officer was a significant milestone and warmly welcomed across the business and beyond. Having Chip onboard as a radiologist – a key stakeholder in the imaging ecosystem – is hugely beneficial. Working with him at Hennepin as a Philips’ customer previously, we saw how well his views aligned with ours, with comments such as these:

“It’s not enough for Philips to just engineer the greatest imaging product anymore. You need to fire on every cylinder and you can’t lose sight of the long-term goal. Everything has to come together in an integrated solution and a patient-centric way. Everyone needs to be on the bus. There’s no question that the time and energy Philips puts into understanding what patient centered care is – or means - to the patient, to the radiologist, or to the technologist is critically important.” – Dr. Chip Truwit

Chip’s global reputation in neuroradiology, his extensive leadership experience and innovative spirit – along with his lifelong commitment to high standards of patient care – make him a remarkable addition to our imaging team. Chip served 19 years as Chief of Radiology, guiding Hennepin Healthcare's Department of Radiology through transformation, including its ascent to leadership in the community as the premiere Department of Radiology in the Twin Cities in North America. He understands the tremendous changes radiology is going through right now and has championed how imaging innovation can redefine the standard of care in public hospitals. In particular, asked about what drove his passion for driving high-quality and cost-effective healthcare in his prior work at Hennepin, he has said:

“Hospitals tend to be at the mercy of people that make decisions on the basis of politics and not necessarily on the basis of care, or the basis of need, or even sometimes, the basis of standard of care, and that is the way the dollars of healthcare are always titrated. In my inner being - my core - I believe public sectors should define the level of care, not respond to and find the lowest common denominator, but define what excellence should be. Mediocrity is not aspirational at all. We must strive to be the best, despite the challenges.” - Dr. Chip Truwit

Most importantly, Chip’s values and focus are synchronized with our values and direction in diagnostic imaging in particular and Philips overall. His proven expertise and skillset will help underpin Philips’ imaging strategy and innovation. We will leverage his vast knowledge on the best way to apply artificial intelligence where it is most relevant in clinical workflows to improve diagnostic confidence, operational performance and address key issues such as radiologist burnout. He will help us align our technology solutions with the goals of value-based care and the Quadruple Aim to drive better health outcomes, improve the patient and staff experience and lower cost of care. On the future of radiology, he has said:

“Imaging is absolutely central to everything that happens in medicine these days. There are so few patients that come into the hospital that don’t get a radiology exam. And, things are on hold until you get the answer from radiology. As the information that is derived from imaging grows exponentially, very few people understand how important the role of AI will be to redefine how we handle that data and analyze that data in order to shift the curve of specificity towards a more precise diagnosis and patient-centric, precision medicine approach – that’s where we are headed.” – Dr. Chip Truwit

With his unique perspective and broad clinical experience, Chip will be a valuable guide for advancing precision diagnosis today at Philips and transforming traditional imaging into a holistic view of the digital patient to enable precision medicine in the future.