Nearly a decade ago, Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands fathered the Philips Healthcare Services group and appears determined that "the son" 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 beginning year began an acquisition frenzy so they could expand its subsidiary's product portfolio far beyond its original product line, which started in 1918 with medical x-ray tubes.
Concluding Philips Healthcare Services beginning year, Philips Electronics added digital ultrasound systems to PHS's portfolio by acquiring 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 went 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 shot past GE Medical as the head 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 gained cutting-edge multi-slice CT technology along with cardiology, oncology and PET/CT imaging applications. These two acquisitions in one year put Philips in the top three for the entire medical equipment industry along with giants Siemens and GE Medical - some say as number 2.
In 2005, the expansion kept going as Philips bought Stentor, Inc. of California, provider best-in-class picture archiving and communications systems (PACS). This move allowed Philips to help its clients successfully manage the many amounts of imaging data designed by its medical scanners. Then, the next year, the expansion continued as Philips adopted Witt Biomedical Corporation, the biggest independent supplier of Cath Lab monitoring and reporting systems.
In its drive to become King of the Medical Equipment industry, Philips Healthcare Services has obtained six businesses since its inception in 1998. Every single one of the six has expanded Philips' offerings to include a total of ten medical imaging modalities, from CT to MRI to x-ray, along with defibrillation and cardiac monitoring equipment as well as image and information management solutions.
So, has Philips entered the royal industry castle yet? Some think they have. In fact, prior to the last two acquisitions, Palo Alto's "growth consulting" company Frost & Sullivan seemed to think so. In 2004 Frost & Sullivan announced they were awarding Philips FIVE awards for "technology and services innovation and industry leadership". Philips was honored for making distinguished contributions to the cardiac resuscitation and medical imaging industries and for providing leadership in these market segments.
Was Frost & Sullivan just looking for a spot at the royal court or were these legitimate kudos? Probably the later. F&S conducted interviews with many market players along with their customers and suppliers, and reportedly did extensive research into the medical equipment technology field.
One of the five awards included 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, of Philips Medical Systems, to the what he recieved sounded like the equivalent 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 more indicators that Philips continues to set the industry standard for developing innovative products that help treat patients and save lives." Royal Philips. Long live the King!
Jesse Fisher is webmaster for TransAmerican Medical, the largest independent provider of refurbished Philips Medical Imaging systems and parts.
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