GE Humanizes Radiology Exams With MR Patient Experience Suite

November 28, 2011 — At RSNA 2011, GE Healthcare introduced the innovative magnetic resonance (MR) Patient Experience Suite, part of its healthymagination strategy to improve the quality of patient care. The suite aims to “humanize” radiology by softening the clinical look, feel and sound of a traditional MR exam.

“GE is very serious about humanizing radiology and making its MR systems patient-friendly, safe and without compromise,” said Jacques Coumans, general manager for Premium MR Systems at GE Healthcare. “The new MR Suite allows a patient to be ‘transported’ to Tahiti, the Appalachians or the Keukenhof for the duration of an MR exam. The design of the suite allows a patient to choose the audio-visual content of the MR Suite to help reduce anxiety.”

The MR Patient Experience Suite was conceived by GE Global Design and was created by PDC Facilities, Inc., to reflect the award-winning themes of GE’s w-series (wide bore) MR. The suite incorporates the “caring hands” design philosophy of the Discovery MR750w system, with lighting, interior décor, scenery and music or sounds that can be customized by the patient using his or her own portable media player. Light, form, color, materials and texture transform the exam environment from one that is cold and clinical to, for example, a home library and fireside.

Different patient age groups have different needs. The MR Patient Experience Suite addresses those needs with special moods and themes for pediatric and geriatric patients. To further soften the feel of an MR exam, GE Healthcare teamed up with VisualTherapy’ s Joey Fischer, an expert in nature photography who pioneered the use of imagery to help reduce the stress and anxiety of patients undergoing diagnostic or therapeutic medical procedures.

The w-series also incorporates the GEM Suite of patient-embracing, lightweight radio frequency (RF) coils, designed to adapt to varying patient shapes, and which enables feet-first exams for all anatomies, aimed at reducing patient anxiety.

The MR Patient Experience Suite is based on award-winning designs of GE Healthcare’s 3.0T and 1.5T w-series (wide bore) MR systems, which debuted a year ago. The w-series received the prestigious IDEA Silver Award for patient-centric MR design by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) earlier this year.

For more information: www.gehealthcare.com

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