CHICAGO, Ill. -- By Lee Han-soo/Korea Biomedical correspondent -- As the radiology sector grapples with staff shortages and increasing patient volumes, Philips unveiled a series of AI-powered innovations at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) 2024, showcasing its commitment to advancing precision imaging and workflow efficiency.

Among the highlights were the company's AI-enabled imaging solutions, breakthrough developments in cardiac MRI applications with Mayo Clinic, and the industry's first wide-bore, high-performance helium-free MRI scanner.

In an exclusive interview, Philips Chief Medical Officer Carla Goulart Peron discussed the company's vision for democratizing healthcare access through technology and artificial intelligence.

"Our mission is 'impact with care,' which means making sure that we can get good access to care everywhere," Peron emphasized. "At RSNA, it was really about launching AI solutions that can help us to get more patients into the funnel of imaging, specifically for precision imaging."

The global healthcare landscape faces unprecedented challenges, with the Philips Future Health Index 2024 Report revealing that 99 percent of radiology leaders struggle with staff shortages, while 45 percent experience burnout.

When asked about addressing these challenges, Peron highlighted the dual role of AI in healthcare delivery.

"Everything I've seen so far is actually tackling two aspects," she explained. "The first one is how we actually reduce the time for imaging or any kind of workflow and the second aspect is facilitating prioritization – determining which patients physicians should see first.”

At the end of the day, the company’s goal is to help hospitals see more patients with the same number of radiologists, Peron added.

The integration of AI is already showing promising results in clinical settings.

“The use of AI has shown that it can catch certain areas where the human eye would miss,” she said. “In that regard, radiologists can intervene earlier for those patients by using AI, which, in turn, can improve outcome.”

When asked about the disparity between advanced and middle-to-low-income countries using advanced technologies such as AI, Peron shared her valuable experience from Brazil, her home country, to emphasize the importance of making advanced healthcare technology accessible to underserved communities.

"Through the Philips Foundation, we are actually enabling programs that can give access to communities that cannot really afford technologies like portable ultrasound or other types of technology that can enable diagnostic and treatment for patients," she said. "However, it is important to note that the price tag of certain devices is not the most important factor as it is more important to show the overall cost benefits of introducing these technologies as part of the healthcare system and how it can benefit that entire population."

She emphasized that the key to expanding access lies in demonstrating long-term value.

"Sometimes a country may need to invest early stage in acquiring the technology, but in the long run, such countries will see that overall cost of treating specific diseases by implementing the latest technologies are beneficial,” she said. “The overall system needs to be considered rather than just specifically the in-hospital time.”

If a patient’s diagnosis is postponed it can increase the social burden as patients may not be able to work or require caregivers, who may also not be able to work, she added.

During the interview, Peron emphasized its growing importance in addressing global healthcare challenges.

"The shortage of staff is really something real and it's not going to go anywhere - fewer nurses, technicians, and physicians," she said. "Through Covid-19, for good or bad, we actually had a huge advancement in technology.”

Philips technology allows the care to be taken to the homes or point of care instead of bringing those patients to the hospitals, which is a lot more effective as radiologists can see a lot more patients in less time, she added.

Peron highlighted a compelling example from Indonesia.

"We had a very interesting interaction with the Minister of Health from Indonesia about stroke care,” she said. “The country has hundreds of islands as part of Indonesia, so telehealth is key for them to diagnose stroke and define which patients should be transferred from remote locations to more capable centers.”

This is because not every island can have qualified physicians to make diagnoses, she added.

Peron points out that Philips is facilitating this through their remote operations control system.

"We are actually launching two features of our ROCC (Remote Operation Control Center) which can help countries to give access to CT and MRI controls from people that are very technically well trained in areas where you may not have the same level of expertise,” she said. “For example, one physician can talk to another physician and actually take control of the MRI machine through this system."

In discussing the future of AI in healthcare, Peron sees evolution beyond current capabilities.

"Today we're very much trained in diagnosing things that are already there,” she said. “AI is starting to compare data longitudinally and potentially define early stages of scenarios and even before symptoms appear.”

Peron highlighted a recent partnership advancing Alzheimer's disease detection through AI technology.

“We've partnered with a company that uses AI to analyze MRI scans for Alzheimer's disease,” she said. “The AI can precisely measure brain volume and other markers that would take hours for a human to analyze manually.”

What might require extensive measurements and cross-data analysis by the human eye can now be done rapidly and accurately through AI, she added.

The potential impact extends beyond Alzheimer's disease.

“In the cardiac space, we are also starting to compare not only the dynamic of the cardiac environment but other organs that can be contributing to that kind of disease,” she said.

All in all, Peron expressed her belief that AI will help further solidify the fact that the future will be about precision medicine.

Having joined Philips in September 2023, Peron concluded by sharing her vision as CMO.

"I joined Philips with the goal of helping in the transformation into medtech, ensuring we live our mission of impact with care,” she said. “In the next few years, the company will focus on making sure every single technology that it develops and commercializes will actually benefit patients directly and is accessible beyond the major markets.”