Philips and the Global Health Hub
For over 130 years, Philips has been a beacon of innovation, constantly evolving to meet society's changing needs. Today, its focus lies on healthcare, driven by a mission to improve people’s health and well-being around the world. Through pioneering solutions that span diagnostics, treatment, and personal health, Philips strives to create meaningful innovations that matter. This global perspective makes partnering with the Netherlands’ Global Health Hub a natural fit.
The Global Health Hub, launched to address pressing global challenges, provides a space for organisations to come together to tackle issues that a single entity cannot solve alone. For Philips, the Hub represents an opportunity to advance its mission of expanding access to care while engaging with a diverse set of partners who share a common goal: improving health systems worldwide. Ruth van Asperen, Philips’ coordinator for its role in the Hub: “As a leading health technology company, Philips’ purpose is to improve people’s health and well-being through meaningful innovation. We enable accessible and equitable care by teaming up with partners that help us understand local contexts and ecosystems, and ensure long-term impact. The Hub connects us to those partners. Collaboration is key to addressing complex health challenges.”
Van Asperen: “We always look for new ways to improve health, from early diagnostics using imaging systems like CT and MRI scanners to patient monitoring devices that help manage patients in hospitals and at home. We aim to improve the lives of 2.5 billion people annually by 2030, including 400 million in underserved communities. Because everyone deserves a healthy life, no matter who they are or where they live. As a global healthcare company, we see it as our duty to contribute to innovations that specifically address global health needs, to ensure our solutions make a difference where they’re needed most.”
Partnership with the Hub
The partnership with the Global Health Hub aligns with another crucial issue: the intersection of health and climate change. As the climate crisis worsens, its impact on global health becomes increasingly clear. Rising temperatures, natural disasters, and resource scarcity all strain healthcare systems, especially in vulnerable regions. Philips is therefore embedding sustainability into its operations, achieving carbon neutrality in 2020 and setting ambitious targets to cut emissions across its supply chain. “Building on our long-standing commitment to people and the planet, we aim to make the world healthier and more sustainable,” says Van Asperen. “To realize systemic change, equitable and sustainable healthcare need to go hand in hand. They cannot be achieved in isolation. For healthcare to be equitable it must also be sustainable.”
Through the Hub, Philips is strengthening ties with governments, NGOs, and other stakeholders to address challenges collaboratively. Van Asperen: “We bring a piece of the puzzle, but it’s through working together that we can truly transform healthcare systems. The Hub is critical in aligning these efforts and driving real, lasting change.”