It was held on Tuesday 27th the September Smart Talk hosting Davide Siro Campari, General Manager Fujifilm Italia of Medical Device Division, focusing on “Overview and Perspectives on the Cyprus Tourism Industry”.
After the introductory greetings by the President of the Italian-Cypriot Chamber of Commerce Giuseppe Marino, who introduced Mr Campari, the event was moderated by Costas Katsaros, Vice President of the Chamber.
Firstly, Mr Campari, which has 20 years of experience in the company, gave the audience a general overview of the main areas of interest of Fujifilm – Medical Device Domain, highlighting how Fujifilm offers a diverse range of products including X-ray diagnostic imaging systems, endoscopes, ultrasound, in-vitro diagnostics and also medical IT systems, which deliver comprehensive open solutions to the needs in the clinical settings. Cross-selling synergies utilizing the global sales channel have already emerged and revenue in 2021 for the Medical Systems business was approximately 3.7 billion USD, while the sales target set for 2026 is approximately 5 billion USD.
Challenges in the Healthcare Industry related in particular to medical devices are many, and few on which Fujifilm has based its strategy are the increased medical care expenses due to the ageing population, regional disparities in medical services, shortage of healthcare workers while increased workload, “Early detection and treatment of illness” and “Reducing the burden on healthcare specialists”. FUJIFILM Holdings strives to “improve access to medical services,” as stated in its CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) plan, Sustainable Value Plan 2030. Fujifilm’s AI and IT solutions form core capabilities in fulfilling this task. Fujifilm will work to improve medical accessibility in all 196 countries and regions in the world by introducing AI-based medical products and services by 2030.
Fujifilm is one of the biggest companies worldwide, and in Fujifilm’s European geography, which today comprises 50 operating entities, sales entities and factories, Fujifilm Italy is a key player, particularly in the medical business. Fujifilm Italia is the third largest country in Europe in terms of turnover, and the largest in the Medical IT sector. Italy has capable teams that know how to read the needs of a rapidly evolving market and respond with innovative solutions, whether they are related to an adaptation of existing software, or the study of dedicated solutions, including artificial intelligence architectures.
Fujifilm Italia is extremely advanced, and today, with the ongoing integration of Fujifilm Healthcare, Italy can exploit this know-how to maximise the potential of a complete portfolio of solutions for healthcare.
In terms of direct contact with local distributors, and the possibility of cooperation, Fujifilm is committed to investing and providing the state of the art in medical devices, indeed in the last three years alone, it has committed to invest more than 5 billion euros in healthcare businesses globally. Cyprus has an excellent Healthcare System in the public and private sectors with regular growth in spending; so, it’s a great partner for international players such as Fujifilm.
Local distributors are the company’s opportunity to get involved and be ready to participate in public procurements.
Then, the Smart Talk highlighted how the Italian-Cypriot Chamber of Commerce has already supported Fujifilm Italia – Medical Device Division in finding a local distributor in Cyprus involved in the healthcare sector, Relia Trading LTD, and how Fujifilm Europe, through Fujifilm Italy, looks at the Cypriot market with great interest, as a double opportunity, the Cypriot market itself, due to the prospects given by the recent constitution of the public health service, and in addition, the potential expansions that any Cypriot partners could implement towards other countries on the eastern side of the Mediterranean basin. Obviously, this second part of the project will require a further and in-depth study phase and could involve other Fujifilm Sales entities.
The discussion continued on the impacts of the pandemic, which revealed all the weaknesses of a system that had drastically reduced investment over the years. This progressive downsizing affected not only the equipment of radiological devices, often obsolete or even absent but also the healthcare personnel themselves. While, immediately at the beginning of the pandemic, we saw investments in technology dedicated to strengthening all areas of radiology begin and grow, we did not see any increase in personnel. And this is true for radiology, and for all hospital sectors.
The phenomenon of ‘burn out’, which even in some countries has seen doctors leave the profession due to humanly unmanageable stress, certainly requires an investment in people, but above all an investment in digitization, to make workflows less demanding for health professionals and safer for the patient. Moreover, the pandemic has highlighted two other major problems, namely, the neglect of citizens to participate in screening programs, and the dehumanization of hospital environments. Environments that turned out not to be empathetic for patients and operators and that accelerated the sense of discomfort of reception.
All these phenomena mentioned have been analyzed by Fujifilm and on all of them, it has provided answers and sought solutions, also creating innovative system partnerships with other players in the sector and with healthcare professionals. In this respect, Fujifilm Italia has realized an innovative project promoted in collaboration with Roche, the pharmaceutical company, addressed to the women to support the national breast screening project. The screening programs have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic because of the restrictions and the difficulties to reach the hospital sites. Fujifilm Italia and Roche decided to start an initiative, Screening Routine, to support public health organizations, focusing on actions to restore breast screening participation and its important preventive role. The companies invested together in a donation of 10 mammo systems in different Italian hospitals affect by a drop of screening procedures accompanied by an intensive awareness campaign to re-establish breast screening program importance in cancer prevention. This underlines how Fujifilm Italia is not only interested in satisfying the customer’s needs but also attentive to social actions.
Certainly, innovation is a key growth driver in Fujifilm’s industry and it is focusing on the development of AI technology assisting diagnostic imaging based on the PACS “SYNAPSE”, which has the top market share. Since 2019, Fujifilm has been developing AI technology under the brand name “REiLI” and has already been providing products and services that utilize AI technology in more than 80 countries in the world.
Finally, Federico Franchina, Vice President of the Chamber, in his concluding remarks underlined how in healthcare and innovation, it is important to have a Regional approach to find solutions to new difficult challenges, as the pandemic has shown. The Chamber is really committed to this goal and among its activities, is organizing the Trade Mission in the Health Care sector with this goal in mind.
For further insights on this article and for more information on the activities of the Italian-Cypriot Chamber of Commerce, please write to: segreteria@camcomitacipro.it
Last modified: October 3, 2022