Honeywell is helping Indian company Narayana Hrudayalaya offer technology-driven, affordable and accessible healthcare for all.

The two companies have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) to identify, assess and collaborate on opportunities for Narayana’s digital transformation. This is subject to definitive agreements to be executed between Honeywell and Narayana.

“These are times of great promise and even greater opportunities in healthcare innovation,” said Suresh Venkatarayalu, chief technology officer at Honeywell. “At Honeywell, we recognise this and have pivoted towards the development of technologies that will shape the future of healthcare delivery. The MoU with Narayana Health – one of India’s foremost healthcare service providers – offers us an opportunity to create a strategic technology development roadmap that will eventually transform India’s healthcare industry.”

Devi Prasad Shetty, executive director of Narayana Healthcare, added: “Sensors and digital technology will disrupt health care delivery. Narayana Healthcare is delighted to work with Honeywell to develop digital technologies for making health care safer, more accessible and more affordable.”

Honeywell’s sensing healthcare technologies business builds on the company’s work in sensors to offer devices and software for hospitals, clinics and elderly care facilities to improve communications, collaboration and coordination of clinical care.

“The pandemic made it abundantly clear that healthcare organisations need technology that can be seamlessly integrated into existing systems and processes to streamline error prone tasks, enhance patient experience and improve organisational agility,” said Robert Robinson, vice president at Honeywell.

Through the MoU, Honeywell and Narayana Health will work towards co-innovation and introduction of products, establish technology development centres, co-create joint capabilities in technology development and research, and undertake the development of fire safety codecs that ensure an end-to-end life safety system to make hospitals safer. As a technology partner, Honeywell will also help enhance and optimise Narayana Health’s digital processes and offer training to its employees.

The healthcare industry is continuously evolving to keep up with increasing regulatory pressures, while maintaining an environment where patients and staff feel safe. Covid-19 highlighted the need for bringing efficiencies in healthcare delivery to enable fewer personnel to do more onsite. The growth in telemedicine also opened avenues for hospitals to manage patient care. Healthcare providers often struggle with developing the right approach to stay ahead of these changes.

To help meet some of these challenges, last year Honeywell launched its RTHMS real-time health monitoring system. This is a smart edge-to-cloud communication platform for remote and real-time patient monitoring that acts as a bridge between caregiver and patient. This offering integrates hardware and software to improve care delivery, enhance healthcare worker productivity, and enable process efficiency. By digitising and automating critical tasks, RTHMS can reduce hospital administrative tasks by 35%.

“Narayana Healthcare has made remarkable progress in using technology to improve clinical outcomes and increase healthcare delivery efficiency,” said Emmanuel Rupert, group CEO at Narayana Hrudayalaya. “Honeywell’s sensor-based applications will complement our efforts in real-time patient monitoring and fire safety, raising the bar for others to meet.”

Honeywell has a portfolio of healthcare technologies from a patient’s first visit, to diagnosis and returning home from care. The technologies can help healthcare providers increase productivity and efficiency, and shape the future of their organisations.