Experts unpack the Philips Future Health Index 2023 — Watch now
Philips has published its Future Health Index 2023 report, which analyses the key priorities of healthcare professionals in South Africa.
“It is important for us to publish and conduct this research so that we can get better insight into the future health landscape of the country,” said Philips Southern Africa managing director Romulen Pillay.
“We will use the findings from the research to help us in the way we do our R&D, but also, it’s a better way of understanding how our clinicians and customers work.”
Reform in the healthcare sector
Dr Katlego Mothudi, MD at the Board of Healthcare Funders of Southern Africa, said it is important to have access to research like the Future Health Index 2023 report, as it plays a key role in improving the local healthcare industry.
“If we are serious about issues of access to essential services, we need to conduct research like that which Phillips has presented,” said Mothudi.
“People want access to healthcare that is of a high quality, so it is important that we look at service provision, infrastructure issues, and the healthcare workforce.”
“We have to make sure that we encourage healthcare reform to address many of the inefficiencies and challenges that are currently affecting our system.”
Professor Glenda Gray, CEO and President of the South African Medical Research Council, agreed that healthcare reform in the country is necessary.
“There is ageing infrastructure, a lack of investment, issues with reticulation — we just have not invested in our core structure,” said Gray.
“How do we fix it? Innovation.”
Virtual care
One area of innovation that the report found local healthcare workers to be supportive of is virtual care.
“Virtual care is important in South Africa because it is the last mile in curing and controlling diseases,” said Gray.
“This is the way that we have to do it — telemedicine, digital health, digital diagnostics.”
“If we want to make sure we can get the drugs to the people, we have to invest in innovation,” said Gray.
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