Nuclear Cardiology. Ingenuity TF PET/CT Philips collaborates with cardiologists and leading medical research institutions to develop advanced imaging, diagnostic, interventional, patient monitoring, information management, and resuscitation tools to help you provide the highest standard of care in the most efficient way. Photo courtesy of Philips

Milwaukee, WI, USA and Andover, Mass., USA – May 24, 2012

GE Healthcare (NYSE: GE) and Royal Philips Electronics (AEX: PHI, NYSE: PHG) applaud the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today for its action allocating protected spectrum for wireless medical devices, called Medical Body Area Networks (MBANs), which could revolutionize the way patients are monitored and help eliminate the restrictive cables that tether patients to hospital beds.

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MBANs - small, wearable wireless sensors that capture patient vital signs - could help extend care anywhere throughout the hospital or even remotely in the home.

GEMINI TF Big Bore PET/CT (PET/CT - Positron Emission Tomography product) GEMINI TF Big Bore is the world’s first PET/CT system, combining 3rd generation Time-of-Flight PET performance with the market leading Brilliance CT Big Bore simulator. Photo courtesy of Philips

By providing access to spectrum that is free of transmissions from WiFi and other ubiquitous high-powered consumer devices, the FCC’s ruling is a key enabler for MBANs.

PET Applications The Extended Brilliance Workspace with the Philips fusion viewer offers a comprehensive portfolio of PET applications in oncology, cardiology and neurology, providing an intuitive and workflow-focused user environment for advanced quantitive analysis, visualization and reporting. Photo courtesy of Philips

Today, nearly all patient monitors are connected to patients via cables.

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By eliminating these wires, MBANs could help patients be more mobile, which may contribute to improved patient outcomes and recovery, and enhance their overall comfort.

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Small, wearable sensors could collect real-time clinical information such as temperature and respiratory function, and aggregate it at a nearby device for local processing and forwarding to centralized displays and electronic medical records.

People - Leveraging Scarce Clinical Resources Leveraging clinical resources from a centralized location enables greater access to specialists and enhanced guidance and support for local care providers – wherever they happen to be. Photo courtesy of Philips

“MBANs represent the next evolution in monitoring a patient’s health status,” said Dr. Richard Katz, Director, Division of Cardiology, Bloedorn Professor of Medicine, The George Washington University Hospital.
“These wireless innovations can enhance patient safety by giving caregivers the ability to monitor many clinical measurements, wherever the patient is located.”

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MBANs could offer the following, additional benefits in the hospital:

• Early intervention: Clinicians can catch issues before the patient’s condition becomes critical, thus improving patient outcomes while avoiding the need for acute interventional measures.

• Ease of patient transport: There will no longer be a need to disconnect and reconnect wires prior to transporting a patient.

• Infection control: By limiting the wires, MBANs could help reduce the risk of infection and the need for cleaning procedures.

• Flexibility: Caregivers will be able to quickly add or remove sensors for different physiological parameters as medical conditions warrant.

IntelliSpace Event Management IntelliSpace Event Management (formerly Emergin) helps by providing caregivers with meaningful alerts directly to their communication devices, improving efficacy of care. Photo courtesy of Philips

In the current healthcare system, patients are primarily monitored in acute and critical-care departments.

System Administrator Overview We work closely with system administrators, IT, biomedical/clinical engineers, and telecom experts so you can keep IntelliSpace Event Management available, up-to-date, and maintained at your facility. This solution integrates data from disparate systems and offers technical features and benefits that allow healthcare organizations to manage staff communication and improve care. Photo courtesy of Philips

MBANs are low-cost wearable sensors that could allow clinicians to view vital signs for a patient wherever they are - from hospitals to emergency vehicles to the home.

About the Protected Radio Frequency Band for MBANs

After significant consultation with the FCC and the medical industry, GE Healthcare and Philips Healthcare identified and advocated for MBANs to share a piece of the spectrum traditionally used by the aerospace industry and government agencies for flight testing.

Interoperability Over 200 interoperable input and output devices help meet the needs of your healthcare infrastructure. Photo courtesy of Philips

In 2011, the medical and aerospace industry submitted a joint proposal to the FCC detailing how MBAN devices could reliably share wireless spectrum with safety-related aeronautical telemetry operations.

IntelliSpace Portal Advanced visualization wherever and whenever it’s required. IntelliSpace Portal is a powerful thin-client solution for advanced image review, and analysis. It offers the flexibility to diagnose and collaborate virtually anywhere. It’s an integrated clinical solution that’s multispecialty, multimodality, and multivendor. Unlock the power of enterprise-wide distributed data with IntelliSpace Portal. Photo courtesy of Philips

This consensus-building approach is a unique example of how different industries, given compatible technologies and appropriate terms, can seek to share limited spectrum resources.

Interface Conformance IntelliSpace Event Management has the ability to receive events using industry standards such as HL7, and conformance to consortium-agreed profiles such as IHE Alarm Communication Management (ACM). Photo courtesy of Philips

“With access to special-purpose spectrum, the healthcare industry’s research and development efforts can go into overdrive,” said Anthony Jones, chief marketing officer, Patient Care and Clinical Informatics, for Philips Healthcare.
“The expansion of wireless monitoring capabilities will help allow earlier clinical diagnoses, decisions and interventions, supporting the delivery of better patient care at lower costs.”

Integration Adapters Achieving consistancy across devices For more than a decade, we have worked with vendors to successfully integrate, test, and validate our integration with external patient devices. The result – interoperability with over 200 input and output devices. Photo courtesy of Philips

With this ruling, the FCC has allocated 40 MHz of spectrum - 2360 to 2400 MHz - for use by MBAN devices on a shared, secondary basis.

Philips offers a comprehensive and scalable workflow solution by integrating NM (SPECT & PET) and CT processing on a common platform. The Extended Brilliance Workspace (EBW) is a powerful, easy-to-use multimodality platform that allows this integration. The EBW can be tailored to accommodate specific customer needs. Photo courtesy of Philips

This provides a spectrum band for short-range medical technologies to facilitate reliable low-power operation.

Neurology. CT Advanced Vessel Analysis Photo courtesy of Philips

The FCC’s rule aligns with its National Broadband Plan, which set the goal of advancing several specific “national purposes” including healthcare.

Oncology. CT/MR Vessel Explorer Photo courtesy of Philips

“The FCC’s ruling is the culmination of strong collaboration between the medical industry, regulatory officials and aeronautical stakeholders,” said Mike Harsh, vice president and Chief Technology Officer at GE Healthcare.
“This is an important inflection point, as it enables advances in miniaturized wireless sensors leveraging the latest chip design and clinical measurement technologies. MBANs could significantly enhance quality and access to patient care, while supporting reduced costs.”

Cardio Vascular. CT Pulmonary Emboli Assessment Photo courtesy of Philips

GE Healthcare and Philips Healthcare appreciate the hard work done by the staff of the Office of Engineering and Technology, and particularly appreciate and thank the Chairman, Commissioners, and their legal advisors.


About Royal Philips Electronics

Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) is a diversified health and well-being company, focused on improving people’s lives through meaningful innovation.

As a world leader in healthcare, lifestyle and lighting, Philips integrates technologies and design into people-centric solutions, based on fundamental customer insights and the brand promise of “sense and simplicity”.

Headquartered in the Netherlands, Philips employs approximately 122,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries worldwide.

With sales of EUR 22.6 billion in 2011, the company is a market leader in cardiac care, acute care and home healthcare, energy efficient lighting solutions and new lighting applications, as well as lifestyle products for personal well-being and pleasure with strong leadership positions in male shaving and grooming, portable entertainment and oral healthcare.

News from Philips is located at www.philips.com/newscenter  


About GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care.

Our broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance solutions services help our customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In addition, we partner with healthcare leaders, striving to leverage the global policy change necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable healthcare systems.

Our “healthymagination” vision for the future invites the world to join us on our journey as we continuously develop innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality around the world.

Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE).

Worldwide, GE Healthcare employees are committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries.

For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at
www.gehealthcare.com  

For our latest news, please visit http://newsroom.gehealthcare.com/  


Media Contacts:

GE Healthcare
Annette Busateri
annette.busateri@ge.com  
+1 262-442-0966

Philips Healthcare
Ian Race
ian.race@philips.com  
+1 978-659-4624


Source: Royal Philips Electronics

http://www.newscenter.philips.com/main  

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