Philips, Rennes University Hospital Sign Five-Year Technology, Research and Innovation Partnership

 Royal Philips and Rennes University Hospital are teaming up on diagnostic, interventional imaging, and patient monitoring/management technologies.

The two entities will undertake clinical research over the next five years and leverage each other’s open innovation strengths to foster French startup firms. Rennes University Hospital is one of France’s leading institutions in image-guided interventions, robotics, and clinical research.

“Philips and Rennes University Hospital are entering into a ground-breaking partnership aimed at significantly improving the stroke pathway and co-developing AI algorithms to improve care for the most acute patients, particularly those in the ICU,” said David Corcos, general manager, Philips France. “Leveraging the hospital’s clinical expertise and our respective innovation ecosystems, we believe we can jointly innovate to help the hospital’s healthcare professionals improve care and outcomes for their patients, while contributing to a more sustainable healthcare system. We are thrilled by this unique opportunity.”
 
Philips will deliver new medical technologies and provide management and maintenance services for the hospital’s diagnostic and interventional imaging modalities (MRI, CT, and image-guided therapy) as well as patient monitoring. Informatics solutions will offer central, high-resolution data capture and storage (data warehouses) to drive quality and efficiency improvements, and comprehensive visualization and analysis tools to enhance diagnostic  confidence for complex medical cases. Philips Healthcare Transformation Services experts will help to optimize the hospital’s clinical pathways and patient experience, especially for intensive care units (ICUs) and neuro-radiology departments.
 
Research and Innovation
Key elements of the partnership are collaborative research and innovation activities focused on areas that combine Philips’ technological expertise with Rennes University Hospital’s clinical expertise. Co-development projects will focus on several key areas of joint strategic interest – optimized stroke management, robotics for neurological interventions, big data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) for monitoring patients in ICUs, and AI algorithms to support digital pathology. In addition, the hospital will have access to Philips’ in-house expertise and open-innovation ecosystem to foster the creation of French tech start-ups that can translate research into clinical solutions.   
 
“The University Hospital of Rennes is particularly glad to join its forces with Philips in the framework of an original and ambitious partnership, unique in France, offering tremendous opportunities for innovation and co-development of new solutions to shape the future of medicine and patient care,” said Véronique Anatole-Touzet, CEO at Rennes University Hospital. “This collaboration is the result of several years of fruitful collaboration. Thanks to its rich and integrated character, this partnership will be an amazing catalyst for innovation and research for the University Hospital of Rennes.”
 
Rennes University Hospital, with more than 1,800 beds shared among 4 different sites, is one of the top 10 hospitals in France and a reference center in cardiac and vascular surgery, transplantation, next to other specialisms such as neurosurgery, neuroradiology and robotics. In terms of research and innovation, it has around 200 professionals involved in more than 1,700 research projects shared among 14 research units. Philips and Rennes University Hospital already have multiple collaborations in the field of medical imaging, plus an innovation partnership in digital pathology – the first of its kind in France. Today’s strategic partnership also includes two associate partners of the University Hospital – the University of Rennes 1 and the Saint-Laurent polyclinic.