The 1992 US presidential campaign is famous for, among other things, the coining of the phrase ‘It’s the economy, stupid!’ Some 30 years later, a popular cartoon by René Cattin showed Greta Thunberg writing over the word ‘economy’ and replacing it with ‘planet’. Today, we could tighten the focus even further – ‘It’s the circular economy!’ Interestingly, one of the other key messages during that same 1992 presidential campaign was … ‘Don't forget healthcare’…

The combination of expanding, aging populations and the rising incidence of chronic diseases has created a pressing need for sustainable models of care delivery. This is being exacerbated by excessive levels of waste – physical and otherwise – in health systems the world over. According to Practice Greenhealth, hospitals produce 13 kg waste per bed per day, of which 15-25% is hazardous waste. At the same time, the world’s healthcare systems account for 4% of global CO₂ emissions, more than the global aviation or the shipping industry. And we now know that achieving global climate goals critically depends on more sustainable use of materials, i.e. going circular.

It will come as no surprise, then, that more and more care providers are keen to hear how we can help them make responsible choices that address their sustainability ambitions, as well as their clinical and operational goals.

As a health technology company, Philips is committed to making the world healthier and more sustainable through innovation, while acting responsibly towards the planet and society. It is our ambition to be a leading circular company, decoupling growth from resource consumption across the value chain – shifting from products to solutions, and maximizing value for customers, patients and planet by responsively and proactively managing the lifecycle of our solutions. Circular design is central to that endeavor.

How is Philips addressing this?
Together with our customers and suppliers we have developed a deep understanding of material flows in our industry. Based on these insights, and through our long-established EcoDesign program, we continue to optimize the design of our products and solutions to increase energy efficiency and reduce emissions and packaging. But to make circular models mainstream in healthcare, more needs to be done. To this end, we consider four key drivers:

From hardware to software and services with minimum material impact
In this age of digitalization, it is essential to start the design process with the possibility of ‘dematerialization’ in mind. In other words, when thinking about how to address a customer’s needs, we first ask ourselves, ‘Can we deliver (at least part of) the value our customer wants with a digital/software solution?’ After all, what gets done virtually, leaves less footprint.

The way we watch movies at home is a great example. First of all we bought DVDs, which included the DVD player and the discs – physical products. Then the business model changed, and we started to rent the DVDs. This extended the products’ life, with hundreds of people now able to access the content through the same small piece of coated polycarbonate. The real change came when the service was digitized, which meant that content could be downloaded and consumed anywhere, without specialist hardware and with no need for travel. The result? A better consumer experience and much less pollution and material usage.

It is important to stress, however, that systemic thinking is not at the expense of people focus. Our aim is to amplify and enhance our people-centric design with due consideration for the well-being of the planet, the ultimate goal being to benefit the entire ecosystem.

We can have the greatest impact, also environmentally, by keeping customer/patient needs top of mind. Continually challenging ourselves: ‘What is the optimal (care path) experience we would want to give a patient, with optimal flow through the system, delivering the care with minimal equipment? And in an environment that is least capital-intensive – after all, the more we can deliver at home, the less we need patients to visit expensive, heavy-footprint hospital environments. By way of example: at Philips, we are now able to add remote monitoring solutions into a cardiac post-acute care pathway, enabling patients to be released from hospital much sooner and significantly reducing the hospital’s carbon footprint. 

Six months after deployment of the new EMaaS model, nursing staff gave it a 90% satisfaction rating, up from 8% prior to the new system. The hospital also estimates it will save over 13,000 staff hours from workflow improvement and automation of manual tasks. Moreover, the new patient transport process has reduced the time it takes to connect a patient to a transport monitor from 5 minutes to 3.9 seconds.

The road ahead
Circular economy and circular design allow healthcare organizations to benefit from, and contribute to, sustainable business models that help them remain resilient and achieve the Quadruple Aim – better health outcomes, improved patient and staff experience, lower cost of care.

At Philips, we want to make sure that our decisions are the right choice for our customers, the planet, and society. Building upon our collective experience and involving others (customers, peers, new talent, suppliers and other innovation partners), we are striving to design solutions that drive impact without further depleting the Earth’s resources. With the ultimate aim of going beyond ‘impact neutral’ and driving regenerative thinking, design and innovation.

Design can and should address the systemic and institutional challenges our rapidly changing world is facing. Designing products, services and experiences that improve people’s lives while respecting the planet’s limits. We can only attain these goals by collaborating with others in our ecosystem – care providers, practitioners, knowledge partners, and suppliers. Keen to learn from others’ best practices, we would love to hear more about how your organization is adopting circular thinking and design.