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The World's First App-Based Portable Ultrasound: Philips Lumify

Data Platform, Software, and Hardware to Enhance Accessible Healthcare

How do you even the medical playing field? Put diagnostic devices in everyone's hands. Literally.

Philips is all about innovations that support people's health and wellbeing, and that help people's care providers confidently diagnose, treat, and support them at every stage. So it wasn't a big surprise when they wanted to make low-cost ultrasound technology accessible to all.

Pulling it off, though, would require a ton of careful work - an ecommerce platform, secure data storage, a hardware device and software to support it, etc. Most importantly, the interface had to be human-centered. So Philips partnered with Launch to bring the new system and interface to market.

Lumify was born.

A product photo of Lumify, showing the mobile ap and the probe

Imagine Imaging In Any Location

Lumify is the world's first app-based ultrasound system. This mobile ultrasound device connects to Android devices, unlocking an easy-to-use interface perfect for the everyday user. It's also subscription-based - a new line of revenue for Philips.

Launch worked in close collaboration with the Philips team to define, engineer, and implement the full Lumify stack.​ We provided a skilled team of developers, quality engineers, DevOps engineers, UX and UI designers, and project management for this project.

We worked on most core areas of the solution, including:​

  • Customer-facing ecommerce platforms​
  • Purchase and payment​
  • Integration with enterprise fulfillment and distribution systems​
  • Online device provisioning​
  • Activation and event management​
  • Ongoing cloud-based image management​
  • App design and development​

Critically, we helped Philips move fast so they could beat their competitiors with this innovative project.

"Philips was first-to-market with the Lumify connected ecosystem thanks to our collaboration with Launch. The disruptiveness of both the subscription-based business model and the product offering itself has been embraced by customers looking for a connected, mobile ultrasound solution.

Launch has been our ally every step of the way, enabling us to focus on bringing Philps's outstanding image quality to a brand-new type of customer.

- Tony Gades, Director of Technology, Philips Lumify
A field tech using Lumify to take an ultrasound of a pregnant woman

Scoping Out Data Transformation

The heart of the system is a scalable, robust web-service architecture that serves as the cloud backend for all Lumify medical devices.​ That's what makes it so anyone can take an ultrasound on the go and in the field.

Working with the Ultrasound Group at Philips, we created an end-to-end data platform with Snowflake Data Cloud. ​The platform is designed to aggregate data from disparate sources for maximum usability.

Why does the data platform matter so much? For one, it helps keep private data secure and allows providers to send imaging where it needs to go.

In addition, surfacing quality data for ultrasound devices enables Philips to respond quickly to issues and correct manufacturing errors at the source, which is a challenge for many companies with app-based services.

A clinician performing an ultrasound on a man's clavicle

From device to interface to backend to storage, Philips believes in providing a higher degree of patient care through innovative healthcare tools. Through this partnership and Lumify, they've taken a giant leap toward that goal -

Not only disrupting the healthcare imaging landscape by making low-cost, high-quality ultrasound technology accessible to a wider audience, but setting a new standard for patient care, anywhere.

Launch is on a mission to help every large and growing organization mature their product approach with data-driven and AI-First strategies. Is your org ready? Take our free Data Maturity Self-Assessment to find out.