What You Should Know:
– Philips and Walt Disney Company, today announced a partnership partners to conduct first of its kind clinical research pilot program that aims to help reduce fear and anxiety to improve children’s patient experience during MRI exams
– As part of the partnership, Philips will investigate how Philips Ambient Experience – using a series of animated stories, including some of Disney’s most beloved characters, can improve the patient and clinician experience during pediatric MRI procedures.
Pilot Study Details
Philips Ambient Experience will render six pieces of original, stylised Disney animation – created specially by Disney animators for use in hospitals with clinical guidance from Philips – intended to reduce fear and anxiety often felt by a child in the MRI process.
– The Disney animation features characters like Mickey Mouse, Ariel, Marvel’s Avengers, Star Wars’ Yoda and others, coming together in a diagnostic setting for the first time. The goal of the research pilot is to help alleviate children’s anxiety, create bonds and improve the staff’s ability to carry out their tasks in MRI scanning rooms across six leading European hospitals.
Empowering Children with Philips Ambient Experience
Medical exams like MRI scans can be challenging for many patients, especially children, who are anxious or claustrophobic. Philips Ambient Experience – with 2,000 installations worldwide – helps manage these challenges by creating an engaging, multi-sensorial imaging environment that is welcoming and relaxing. Patients can personalize the room’s lighting, video, and sound by selecting a theme of their choice.
This gives them a feeling of empowerment and control over the procedure and provides a positive focus on the ambient theme. Ambient Experience Patient In-bore Connect helps them relax, follow directions, and minimize motion once they are in the scanner using video content aligned with the MRI procedure to provide information and guidance to the patient during scanning as well as information about scan duration. This becomes increasingly important for younger pediatric patients undergoing MR scans who need to remain still to help reduce the need for repeat scans. Philips Ambient Experience is proven to help improve efficiency with higher patient throughput and predictability, significantly reducing the need for retakes and rescans.
Why It Matters
A visit to the hospital can be quite intimidating for people, and especially children, where a more patient-friendly, patient-centric environment could help improve the patient experience and help drive first-time-right imaging for improved outcomes,” said Kees Wesdorp, Chief Business Leader of Precision Diagnosis at Philips. “With this pilot study, we will investigate the impact of Philips Ambient Experience including Disney’s specially developed themes to empower children with a positive experience to help them throughout the medical procedure. Philips has always taken a human-centric approach to healthcare. Together, we can make a real difference for thousands of young patients going through medical procedures each day.”
