Inspiring Innovation – Innovating With Our Customers for a Healthier Future

Monday, August 13, 2018

Innovation is our lifeblood at Varex Imaging. From detecting illnesses in patients to discovering potential diseases in foods, our job is to push the boundaries of technological innovation so that our customers can provide the best services to the people and places that need them most.

With the global population growing and aging, healthcare systems around the world are under increasing pressure to perform. At Varex Imaging, we have an opportunity to create value for society by enabling faster, easier, and more precise medical diagnostics to be delivered through the next generation of imaging technology.

In September 2017, our first materiality assessment informed us that innovation ranked as one of the most important issues among both Varex Imaging stakeholders and our own business. Because we wanted our new Sustainability Strategy to be driven by our stakeholders, we decided to make Inspiring Innovation one the four key ambitions.

As technology evolves, we’re partnering with our customers to seize opportunities to provide better medical screening, combined with greater affordability and reduced X-ray dosage. We’re committed to help improve affordable access to healthcare by designing our products with efficient production in mind. By sharing our expertise and products, we can better support our customers and enable their success to improve healthcare solutions for all.

Driving progress: our new Sustainable Innovation Criteria
We have committed to partner with our customers to create products that impact the lives of millions of people. In 2017, we launched our Sustainable Innovation Criteria alongside our new Sustainability Strategy. The four criteria are designed to drive progress and improve sustainability across our growing product portfolio—continuously improving our positive social and environmental impact. We’ve started to embed the four new Sustainable Innovation Criteria into our product development processes for both medical and industrial products. Our commitment is that, by 2018, 100% of our new products will meet at least two of our Sustainable Innovation Criteria, rising to three criteria by 2019. To achieve this, we’ll invest 8–10% of annual revenue in product R&D every year.

Sustainable Innovation Criteria
Better user experience – faster and more reliable scanning, better patient comfort, and improved portability

Improved dose efficiency – the right amount of radiation where needed including lower dose for humans

Clearer images and improved differentiation

Reduced environmental impact – less power and raw materials usage

Last year, 100% of our new medical products met at least one of our Sustainable Innovation Criteria and 55.5% (five of nine products) met three or more criteria. We’ll keep innovating to increase the number of criteria our new products meet, but we know we cannot do this alone: the partnership and dedication of our stakeholders is key to unlocking sustainable innovation.

Many of our customer relationships go back years, and we are constantly forging new ones. To drive innovation, we strive to work as one team with our customers. We also depend on the outstanding skills and creativity of our employees to ensure our products meet more of the Sustainable Innovation Criteria, and we continually invest in their skills to maximize our collective potential.

Varex Imaging Engineering Team