Philips Healthcare CEO Bows Out

Deborah DiSanzo, who has headed up Philips Healthcare since May 2012, has left the company as the company's stock has slid since the beginning of this year.

Philips CEO Frans van Houten will take charge of the healthcare group.

The division's earnings before interest, taxes and amortization was EUR400 million ($543.7 million) in the second quarter of 2014--more than a 50% drop compared with its EUR603 million earnings figure in the same quarter last year.

"The performance in our Healthcare sector is disappointing, with second-quarter EBITA expected to be approximately EUR 220 million, while expected Group EBITA of approximately EUR 400 million in the second quarter is in line with current market expectations," acknowledged van Houten in a statement.

The company has declared its intent to turn its healthcare business around. Late last month, it announced that it had formed a partnership with Salesforce.com to create "an open cloud-based, health care platform." The network could potentially enable clinicians to better remote patients remotely. Ultimately, the two companies may end up competing against the likes of Apple, which recently announced its plans for HealthKit health-tracking app.

Before taking over Philips' healthcare division, DiSanzo had a number of senior management positions at the company. From 2008-2012, she had been the CEO of the divisions' Patient Care and Clinical Informatics business group. Before that, she works as senior vice president of the company's patient monitoring business.

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