Driving patient-centered innovation while delivering sustainable medical gases: our innovative Healthcare solutions across EAMEI

Air Liquide has a unique position in 30 countries, throughout the entire care ecosystem, contributing to meet these challenges. Working with prescribers and healthcare systems and combining human support and digital AI tools to provide “the right level of care at the optimized cost”, we contribute to help physicians focus on their medical mission, and improve patients’ quality of life, thus contributing to building more efficient and resilient healthcare systems.

Diana Schillag, Group General Secretary overseeing Healthcare Activity, Sustainability and General Control, Air Liquide Executive Committee Member

Launched in early 2024, ECO ORIGIN™ provides certified low-carbon liquid medical gases, produced using 100% renewable electricity and supported by more efficient logistics, including route optimization and the use of alternative fuels where possible. This comprehensive approach enables hospitals to reduce the carbon footprint of their medical gas supply by more than 70%⁵ on average compared with standard supply models, while ensuring the same quality and safety of supply. The offer also includes full traceability of emissions, from medical gas production to delivery, in line with ISO standards.

Since its launch, ECO ORIGIN™ has been adopted by nearly 150 hospitals and clinics, mainly across Europe, including Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Italy and the Netherlands. By combining certified reductions in the carbon footprint of medical gases, the offer responds to growing expectations that healthcare providers reduce emissions without compromising patient care. More broadly, its rapid, multi-country deployment illustrates how targeted changes to essential hospital resources can advance environmental goals in healthcare delivery.

Germany: expanding home healthcare through targeted acquisitions

In Germany, more than 23% of the population is now over the age of 65⁶, while the healthcare system faces growing caregiver shortages, especially among nursing staff. In this context, the Group has acquired several specialized providers, including intensivLeben, AP Sachsen in Saxony, CareBerlin24 and CareBrandenburg24 in the Berlin area. These acquisitions add about 15 medically supervised residential care centers, operated by about 230 employees, mainly nurses, to Air Liquide’s German healthcare network.

The acquired entities focus on patients with chronic respiratory failure, neurological trauma, and neuromuscular diseases, providing intensive, personalized care in shared residential settings designed as an alternative to traditional hospital environments. With these additions, Air Liquide now supports more than 220,000 patients in Germany, building on over 25 years of presence in the country’s home healthcare market.

These acquisitions expand Air Liquide’s footprint in regions with high population density and growing medical needs, while reinforcing a care model that prioritizes proximity, continuity, and individualized support for patients with complex conditions.
 

Spain: a large-scale home respiratory care contract

According to the World Health Organization and the European Respiratory Society (ERS), the number of people living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is expected to increase by 23% globally by 2050⁷, highlighting the growing need for structured, long-term respiratory care.

In September 2025, the Community of Madrid awarded Air Liquide a five-year public contract to provide at-home care services to 70,000 patients living with respiratory diseases, following a competitive tender process. This contract covers patients suffering from conditions such as COPD and sleep apnea, with care delivered directly at home.

The care model combines in-person visits, teleconsultations, connected medical devices, and remote monitoring applications. A secure patient portal supports ongoing follow-up, while a mobile application, already used by 100,000 patients, helps people manage their treatment and alerts care teams to changes in patient status. Used alongside regular in-person interaction between patients and healthcare professionals, these technology solutions support continuity of care between scheduled visits while helping contain healthcare spending.

Air Liquide has been active in Spain’s home healthcare market for more than 30 years, supporting over 600,000 patients nationwide. In this decentralized system, regional governments are responsible for organizing and outsourcing healthcare services, including homecare. In this context, the long-term contract with the Community of Madrid represents a significant extension of Air Liquide’s established presence and reflects the confidence placed in the Group by regional public health authorities and healthcare professionals.

Care enhanced by innovation: creating value across home healthcare

Artificial intelligence (AI) and connected technologies are increasingly integrated into Home Healthcare services to support more personalized care and better organization of care pathways. Air Liquide combines smart medical devices, secure digital platforms, and data analysis tools to support patients living with chronic respiratory conditions and diabetes.

These solutions collect and analyze data on patients’ adherence to treatment, physiological parameters, and reported symptoms and outcomes, helping care teams monitor patients’ conditions and identify those who may require closer follow-up. By leveraging predictive algorithms and AI, these innovations help care teams detect early signs of deterioration and alert physicians in real time, in order to adjust treatment, with the aim of reducing the risk of emergency hospital readmissions and alleviating pressure on public health resources. Remote interactions complement in-person care through teleconsultations and secure digital platforms that facilitate coordination among multidisciplinary care teams, helping nurses, physiotherapists, psychologists, and pulmonologists to focus on their medical mission.

For example, Air Liquide deployed in 2025 an AI-powered solution in the Customer Care Center of our Home Healthcare entity in Sweden to enhance support for people living with diabetes. The tool assists patient advisers by querying large knowledge databases instantly, enabling them to provide accurate answers to patients’ technical questions on their first call. This reduces waiting times, improves the quality of responses, and allows agents to focus fully on active listening and engaging with patients. These solutions illustrate how digital and AI-enabled solutions can be integrated into Home Healthcare services as part of evolving care pathways across Europe.

Air Liquide supports patients, healthcare professionals, and public authorities in adapting healthcare to new medical, economic, and environmental realities. As healthcare systems continue to transform, they demonstrate how targeted innovation can help deliver better outcomes for patients while addressing the pressing challenges facing healthcare today.