Philips Ambient Experience helps Phoenix Children’s Hospital deliver pediatric-centered cancer care

December 1, 2020

• Patient-friendly atmosphere creates positive distraction through the use of engaging audio, video, and lights to help children relax and prepare for PET/CT examinations to diagnose cancer
• Industry-unique radiology department solution aims to support first-time-right diagnosis and therapy monitoring by alleviating fear and anxiety in patients, thereby reducing the need for repeat scans while improving patient and staff experiences

Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Phoenix, AZ, U.S. – Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, today announced successful installation of a Philips PET/CT scanner, Vereos, with Ambient Experience at the Phoenix Children’s Hospital (Arizona, U.S.). In addition, Philips has installed two Ambient Experience uptake rooms at the hospital. These are waiting rooms for children and parents while the PET radiotracer, used to show the potential presence of cancer lesions, is absorbed. Following a recent Ambient Experience install at the new Hospital CUF Tejo (Lisbon, Portugal), it brings Philips close to its 2,000th Ambient Experience implementation worldwide.

The scanner at Phoenix Children’s Hospital will be used for oncological PET/CT examinations to help define the stage to which a cancer has developed, and monitor treatment. Preparing for and undergoing a scan can be a major source of fear and anxiety due to the prospect of finding cancer or discovering that one has spread, and can adversely affect the quality of medical imaging. This is because anxious patients are less capable of complying with instructions such as lying still. In the case of PET/CT imaging their anxiety can lead to physiological effects such as excessive uptake of the radiotracer in their muscles and brown fat, making it more difficult to differentiate cancer tissue. Philips Ambient Experience solutions are designed to help alleviate the patient’s fear and anxiety, improving the patient experience and helping to achieve first-time-right precision results [1].

“Working with Philips, we managed to help the children, and also their parents, achieve a sustained sense of calm during the entire PET/CT imaging procedure while enabling faster image acquisition, faster time-to-results, and reduced need for anesthesia,” said Dianna M. E. Bardo MD, Vice-Chair Clinical Development Radiology at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. “By reducing fear and anxiety in both the children and their parents, the solution also makes the radiology department a much more pleasant and satisfying place for our staff to work.”