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Giving medical imaging a friendly face
Despite the best efforts of hospital
staff to put patients at ease, a hospital examination
can be an intimidating experience. Recognizing this,
Philips Healthcare drew on the combined expertise of
Philips Design and Philips Applied Technologies to help
it provide a welcoming and friendly face for its advanced
imaging systems.
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Philips Healthcare originally
introduced the concept, called Ambient Experience (AE),
at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA)
exhibition in 2003. Philips Applied Technologies and
Philips Design were later brought in to integrate the
enormous range of underlying technologies needed to
bring the concept to life. Moreover, this had to be
done discreetly with the technologies being effectively
invisible to patients and clinical staff. The aim was
to let patients feel they have control over their environment.
Using for example buttons and touch screens, they have
instant command over the ambience within the examination
room by controlling ceiling and wall illumination, sounds
and even projected scenes. Children too can select cartoon
characters to help them relax during examinations. The
following year’s RSNA exhibition provided a real demonstration
of the concept and since then the three partners have
been working to transform the demo solutions into commercial
AE products. The heart of these solutions is SPHAERA,
a software module that takes care of the control of
the entire AE system. The first products, for MR, appeared
in the Philips Healthcare catalogue in April 2006. A
pilot AE project has also recently been completed within
the Cardiovascular Department of the Catharina Hospital,
Eindhoven. Here, the goal was to create a more efficient
well-lit work environment for the clinical staff that
puts patients at ease. Feedback for this has so far
proven highly positive and is expected to lead to a
range of AE products for the catheterization lab in
the future.
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