Philips and Spencer Health Solutions Expand Partnership to Europe

PhilipsBuilding on their successful partnership providing medication adherence solutions to high-acuity patients in the U.S. Royal Philips (NYSE:PHG, AEX:PHIA), a global leader in health technology, and Spencer Health Solutions announced the expansion of 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 EUR 125 billion 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].

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 - https://spencerhealthsolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Whitepaper-6-19-19-FINAL-Published.pdf

About Royal Philips

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading 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 EUR 18.1 billion and employs approximately 78,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries.

About Spencer Health Solutions

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 award-winning spencer® Smart Hub combines medication dispensing, telehealth and engagement so patients, their health care providers, and clinical research teams stay connected.

Most Popular Now

Philips Foundation 2024 Annual Report: E…

Marking its tenth anniversary, Philips Foundation released its 2024 Annual Report, highlighting a year in which the Philips Foundation helped provide access to quality healthcare for 46.5 million people around...

New AI Transforms Radiology with Speed, …

A first-of-its-kind generative AI system, developed in-house at Northwestern Medicine, is revolutionizing radiology - boosting productivity, identifying life-threatening conditions in milliseconds and offering a breakthrough solution to the global radiologist...

Scientists Argue for More FDA Oversight …

An agile, transparent, and ethics-driven oversight system is needed for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to balance innovation with patient safety when it comes to artificial intelligence-driven medical...

New Research Finds Specific Learning Str…

If data used to train artificial intelligence models for medical applications, such as hospitals across the Greater Toronto Area, differs from the real-world data, it could lead to patient harm...

Giving Doctors an AI-Powered Head Start …

Detection of melanoma and a range of other skin diseases will be faster and more accurate with a new artificial intelligence (AI) powered tool that analyses multiple imaging types simultaneously...

AI Agents for Oncology

Clinical decision-making in oncology is challenging and requires the analysis of various data types - from medical imaging and genetic information to patient records and treatment guidelines. To effectively support...

Patients say "Yes..ish" to the…

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to be integrated in healthcare, a new multinational study involving Aarhus University sheds light on how dental patients really feel about its growing role in...

Brains vs. Bytes: Study Compares Diagnos…

A University of Maine study compared how well artificial intelligence (AI) models and human clinicians handled complex or sensitive medical cases. The study published in the Journal of Health Organization...

'AI Scientist' Suggests Combin…

An 'AI scientist', working in collaboration with human scientists, has found that combinations of cheap and safe drugs - used to treat conditions such as high cholesterol and alcohol dependence...

Start-ups in the Spotlight at MEDICA 202…

17 - 20 November 2025, Düsseldorf, Germany. MEDICA, the leading international trade fair and platform for healthcare innovations, will once again confirm its position as the world's number one hotspot for...