March, 20208 RECENT ADVANCEMENTS IN SERVICE TECHNOLOGY BY JACO BIERMAN, HEAD OF SERVICE OPERATIONS, GE HEALTHCARE ASEANWhen buying new healthcare equipment, today's customers are not just looking at the patient outcomes, which technology can help them achieve. They are now placing a huge amount of value on the total-cost-of-ownership as well as the associated customer service benefits that an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) can offer. When faced with a similar product technology offer from two competing companies at a comparable price range, the customer will almost certainly base their purchasing decision on the company that can guarantee the lowest downtime at the most aggressive price point over the usable lifetime of that piece of equipment. This has (or, at least should be) the focus of medical equipment manufacturers all over the world. How do you guarantee the lowest unplanned downtime on a piece of equipment at the most affordable price to your customer? Recent Advancements in the Healthcare Service Environment: Cracking the Ultimate Challenge of Guaranteeing Zero Unplanned Downtime on Healthcare EquipmentHealthcare equipment produces huge amounts of data; not only patient or image data but serviceable usage data. In parallel, most of the healthcare equipment have been designed to enable remote connectivity for many years now. OEMs are using this remote connectivity in very innovative ways to proactively predict failures before they occur, as well as reactively resolve any failures remotely that have occurred. Systems are programmed to scan and record data linked to usage and environmental conditions in a myriad of ways. This data is then used to predict when the next system failure would occur. Companies use this data to either ensure that they have the parts, resources and tools available at the time of failure or in some instances, would replace certain parts proactively based on this predictive data to ensure no unplanned downtime to the customer. Certain parts like X-ray tubes, in most conditions, have an average estimated lifespan measured in the number of exposures or scan seconds. Using this data, linked closely with other parameters monitored via various system logs, OEMs can predict to a certain level of accuracy when that X-ray tube could fail.Remotely Logging into Systems After a Failure has Occurred is in No Ways New TechnologyHowever, we are seeing increasing trends of remote capabilities of new healthcare products where 40 50 percent remote fix rates are now possible. Imagine, as an OEM, that one out of every two customer's calls could be remotely resolved in less than 1 hour without the need to dispatch a field engineer (FE). The customer would not need to reschedule a patient list and could use the time saved to more effectively focus on patient outcomes.That being said, if a remote fix is not possible, it is of absolute importance to ensure that the right field IN MY V EW
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