Philips and Spencer Health Solutions Expand Partnership to Europe

Building on their successful partnership providing medication adherence solutions to high-acuity patients in the United States, Royal Philips and Spencer Health Solutions announced they are expanding their partnership to Europe.
 
Technological solutions can help patients and their caregivers to improve medication plan compliance. Medication adherence reduces hospitalization, emergency department use and doctor’s visits of patients and thereby lessens this burden on healthcare systems leading to lower healthcare costs.^1,2 Estimates suggest that non-adherence contributes to nearly 200,000 premature deaths in Europe and costs of 125 billion euros annually in excess healthcare services for European governments.²
 
“As health systems work to better manage high risk and high-cost patient populations, medication adherence solutions can help to improve medication management and increase patient engagement,” said Derek Ross, business leader, Population Health Management, at Philips. “Technological solutions can help our customers to improve medication adherence of their patients and to deliver better value-based care. We are excited to bring a user-friendly and patient-centric solution for medication adherence to Europe together with Spencer Health Solutions.”
 
Already in use by patients taking multiple medications in the United States and Canada, the Spencer Smart Hub is launching in selected markets in Europe including Austria, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Switzerland, beginning with the Netherlands in the fourth quarter of 2019. The Spencer medication adherence solution is part of a portfolio of Philips solutions to support and remotely manage elderly and patients in their homes and connect them with their care providers when needed.
 
“Through our partnership with Philips we can now jointly introduce our medication adherence solution into the homes of patients across Europe,” said Tom Rhoads, CEO of Spencer. “This expansion builds on our existing partnership in the U.S. which benefits care providers and patients by improving medication adherence. Our digital solution, that connects patients and care providers, supports the delivery of medicine and proactive care while driving down the costs of medical complications related to non-adherence.”
 
The Spencer device offers a connected ecosystem: an in-home dispensing device providing pre-packaged unit dose medication, a connection to the pharmacy and an assist app for family and caregivers. Family and caregivers are notified and able to contact the patient, when the patient does not take medication. The platform has high rates of medication adherence and patient engagement in the U.S. A case study shows an average adherence rate for patients using Spencer greater than 95 percent, and an average patient response rate to health status questions presented with medication dispenses greater than 81 percent.³
 
Royal Philips is a health technology company focused on improving people’s health and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips generated 2018 sales of 18.1 billion euros and employs approximately 78,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries.
 
Advancing research and healthcare from the home. Bring new treatments to market faster and at lower cost with the spencer Smart Hub. Spencer Health Solutions Inc.’s spencer Smart Hub combines medication dispensing, telehealth and engagement so patients, their healthcare providers, and clinical research teams stay connected.

References
¹ Roebuck, M.C. et al., Medication adherence leads to lower health care use and costs despite increased drug spending. Health Affairs, 2011, Jan;30(1):91-99. 
² OECD (2018) Investing in medication adherence improves health outcomes and health system efficiency – Available at: http://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=DELSA/HEA/WD/HWP(2018)2&docLanguage=En Last accessed: 13 September
³ Spencer whitepaper