IBM and Siemens Healthineers have announced a 5-year, global strategic alliance in population health management (PHM). The alliance aims to help hospitals, health systems, integrated delivery networks, and other providers deliver value-based care to patients with complex, chronic, and costly conditions, such as heart disease and cancer.
The health-focused alliance is the first of its kind for the companies, which have a long-standing global relationship that spans diverse industry sectors, including IBM’s work with Siemens Building Technologies, Siemens PLM, and Siemens Digital Grid. It also marks Siemens entry into PHM.
Siemens Healthineers and IBM Watson Health intend to help health care professionals navigate unprecedented changes propelled by a growing volume and diversity of health data, an aging global population, increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, changes in health care payment models, and the digitization and consumerization of health care.
“The adoption of PHM solutions that demonstrate meaningful use of IT applications is expected to accelerate rapidly,” says Koustav Chatterjee, Frost & Sullivan transformational health industry analyst. “Patient care is moving into a broader but coordinated environment where routine, manual tasks are automated by PHM solutions that unify siloed systems, stratify comorbidities, empower patients through engagement, and benchmark outcomes at network, practice, and patient level.”
Chatterjee adds: “I expect the shift from volume to value-based health care delivery will accelerate adoption of PHM technology and service solutions helping providers effectively manage chronic conditions and prevent unnecessary system utilization.”
The alliance leverages the expertise and global reach of both companies, including Siemens’ strength for introducing technology-driven innovatio
“We are at an unprecedented time in health care. Mature and developing markets are increasingly focused on how patient outcomes are optimized, quality is standardized among individuals and across populations, and costs are reduced,” says Deborah DiSanzo, general manager for IBM Watson Health. “Siemens and IBM are ideal partners to work at the forefront of this evolution and enable personalized health care in the U.S. and globally.”
