Royal Philips, a global provider of health technology, has unveiled its innovations in radiology to enable precision diagnosis and enhance productivity at the 2018 Radiological Society of North America Annual Meeting (RSNA). At the meeting, Philips is highlighting its new portfolio of innovative imaging systems, intelligent software applications and associated services. These solutions connect people, data and technology and have been designed to meet the requirements of the quadruple aim: improved outcomes, enhanced patient experience, increased staff satisfaction and lowered cost of care delivery.
 
"As healthcare continues to transform from a volume- to a value-based approach, and the amount of data available for each clinical decision dramatically grows, our customers are seeking more seamless, integrated solutions to enable more precise diagnosis and treatment," said Robert Cascella, chief business leader diagnosis & treatment, Philips. "We've accelerated our pace of innovation, with 70% of our Diagnostic Imaging portfolio renewed within the past two years. We're also harnessing the power of artificial intelligence across the imaging enterprise, from improving workflow to supporting clinical decisions."
 
AI for Radiology
Philips IntelliSpace Discovery 3.0¹ is a comprehensive, open platform to enable the development and deployment of Artificial Intelligence assets in radiology with the aim to support radiologists in their clinical and translational research. IntelliSpace Discovery is already a proven research platform, used by more than 50 hospitals and academic institutions worldwide for the development of radiology applications for rendering, segmentation, and quantification. For example, it is being used for research and clinical validation and subsequently the tools/applications can be deployed into the radiology workflow on the Philips IntelliSpace Portal². With the introduction of IntelliSpace Discovery 3.0 the platform now provides research applications and tools for radiologists to aggregate, normalize and anonymize data, which can be visualized and annotated to 'train' and validate deep learning algorithms. They can then easily deploy these algorithms as plug-in apps into the research workflow to analyze new datasets and help facilitate clinical research in radiology, oncology, neurology and cardiology.
 
Lowering the Cost of Care and Improving Efficiency
Philips has expanded IntelliSpace Enterprise Edition to include Philips PerformanceBridge. Providing access to real-time departmental performance data in an easy-to-use and interactive dashboard, PerformanceBridge offers a flexible suite of solutions to help optimize operational and workflow efficiency. The combined solution bridges the gap between data and decision-making across the enterprise to drive continuous improvement, supported by dedicated advisors and services. Philips IntelliSpace Enterprise Edition combines the Philips IntelliSpace Radiology and Cardiology portfolios with PerformanceBridge into a scalable, interoperable and secure hospital-wide solution for clinical and operational informatics, providing continuous improvement to enable healthcare enterprises to grow and transform.
 
Philips' Ingenia Ambition 1.5T MR is the latest advance in the Ingenia MRI portfolio. The portfolio comprises fully-digital MRI systems, healthcare informatics and a range of maintenance and life cycle services for integrated solutions that break down diagnostic boundaries by delivering speed, comfort and confidence, all with the aim to help improve patient care. It includes Philips Compressed SENSE, an advanced acceleration application that reduces exam times by up to 50 percent³. Compressed SENSE is now available across the full Philips Ingenia MR range, including systems that are already installed.
 
Incorporating Philips' breakthrough BlueSeal fully-sealed magnet, the Ingenia Ambition is the world's first MR system to enable helium-free operations⁴, reducing the chance of potentially lengthy and costly disruptions, and virtually eliminating dependency on a commodity with an unpredictable supply. BlueSeal does not require a vent pipe and is about 900kg lighter than its predecessor⁵, significantly reducing the siting challenges presented by conventional magnets and lowering construction costs.
 
Improving Health Outcomes
At RSNA 2018 Philips will highlight the economic benefits of its IQon Elite Spectral CT systems. Study data demonstrates how the technology can increase hospital efficiency by reducing the volume of follow-up scans⁶, as well as enabling some groups of patients to receive lower levels of contrast agent and reduced X-ray dosage while accelerating the time to diagnosis⁷.
 
Philips' Pinnacle Evolution is the next generation of the Philips Pinnacle treatment planning software and the first to feature Personalized Planning to enable clinicians to quickly create patient-specific, high-quality therapy plans. The Big Bore RT is a CT system designed to provide precise treatment planning through enhanced accuracy in lesion identification, tissue density calculation and segmentation. In addition, Philips' new fully-digital Ingenia MR-RT platform comprises the Ingenia Elition 3.0T MR-RT and Ambition X 1.5T MR-RT systems.
 
Improving the Patient Experience
The new Philips DigitalDiagnost C90 premium ceiling-mounted digital radiography system⁸ supports patient throughput with innovative tools to help drive workflow efficiency. The system's Eleva Tube Head touch screen display transfers operation into the examination room for an even more patient-centered workflow. The live camera helps with patient positioning by providing a clear view of the collimated area, which can help alleviate potential imprecise collimation such as with bariatric patients. The DigitalDiagnost C90 incorporates the Philips Eleva user interface, a common platform across a range of Philips digital radiography systems that's easy-to-learn and customizable to allow a smooth and efficient, patient-focused workflow. The system includes Variofocus X-ray tubes, fixed and wireless detectors and Philips' Unique 2 image processing, which provides superb images of all anatomical areas.
 
At RSNA 2018, Philips is also highlighting new study data that shows radiologists continue to face efficiency challenges during MR scans. The main challenges reported in the study were patient motion and anxiety, which often results in the need for follow-up scans and an increased time to diagnosis. Whilst most respondents stated they used sedation or medication to reduce rescans, the study highlights more patient-focused approaches to managing patient stress and motion resulting in MRI productivity gains⁹. For example, the Philips Ambient Experience and in-bore Connect solution offers an immersive audio-visual experience may help calm patients, improving the quality of service for the patient. Herlev Gentofte University Hospital in Denmark managed to reduce the number of rescans by up to 70¹⁰ using the Ambient Experience in-bore Connect solution with its Ingenia 3.0T MR, allowing radiologists to handle more patients per day¹¹.
 
Improving Staff Satisfaction
Many clinicians depend on ultrasound to enhance detection of breast cancers, especially in women with dense breast tissue. Philips' new 'ultimate ultrasound solution for breast assessment' is available with the Philips EPIQ and Affiniti ultrasound systems, and the combination of the eL18-4 transducer and anatomical intelligence. This all-in-one solution brings together high-quality imaging with complementary clinical tools tailored for breast screenings and diagnosis. With the new breast solution, clinicians can efficiently assess, monitor and treat breast diseases, increasing diagnostic confidence.
 
References
¹ Philips IntelliSpace Discovery is for Research use only and cannot be used for patient diagnosis or treatment selection.
² Tools/applications deployed to ISP are compliant with medical device regulations.
³ Using Compressed SENSE technology and compared to Philips exams without Compressed SENSE.
⁴ The Ingenia Ambition 1.5T contains less than 0.5% of the helium of a conventional system and this is permanently sealed inside the device.
⁵ Compared to the Ingenia 1.5T ZBO magnet.
⁶ Rajiah P, et al. Benefit and clinical significance of retrospectively obtained spectral data with a novel detector-based spectral computed tomography – Initial experiences and results. Clin Imaging. 2017 Oct 31;49:65-72.
⁷ "Economic impact of IQon for patients with renal insufficiency", whitepaper published by Philips, Nov 2017.
⁸ DigitalDiagnost C90 is 510(k) pending and not available for sale in USA.
⁹ "Realizing productivity gains during MRI scans", whitepaper published by Philips, Nov 2018.
¹⁰ Results from case studies are not predictive of results in other cases. Results in other cases may vary.
¹¹ Compared to the average of the other five Philips MR scanners without Ambient Experience and In-bore Connect. Results from case studies are not predictive of results in other studies. Results in other cases may vary.