Industry-leading platform combines clinical excellence and workflow innovation, helping clinicians and hospitals to deliver outstanding patient care.
Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, announced the one millionth procedure on its flagship Azurion image-guided therapy platform. Since its introduction in February 2017, Azurion has seen rapid adoption in hospitals around the world, reaching the landmark millionth procedure in just over 2.5 years. The millionth procedure took place at GZA Ziekenhuizen in Antwerp, Belgium.
Image-guided therapy, where treatment is performed through a small incision and guided by imaging technologies including X-ray and ultrasound, is increasingly replacing open surgery for the treatment of many diseases. As the range of diseases that can be treated with image-guided therapy continues to expand and the procedures themselves become more efficient, the patient’s treatment experience continues to improve. They face less trauma, and as a result their stay in hospital can be dramatically reduced – often returning home after one night in hospital, and for some procedures even leaving the hospital on the same day.
The success of Philips Azurion is testament to the strength of the next-generation platform and our strategy of continuously innovating procedures to make them more effective and efficient.
Ronald Tabaksblat, General Manager Image Guided Therapy Systems at Philips
“Minimally-invasive image-guided procedures are widely regarded as the answer to treating more patients, more quickly and at lower cost,” said Ronald Tabaksblat, General Manager Image Guided Therapy Systems at Philips. “Working together with clinicians, we use our comprehensive portfolio of interventional imaging systems, smart devices, software and services to treat one patient every second worldwide. The success of Philips Azurion is testament to the strength of the next-generation platform and our strategy of continuously innovating procedures to make them more effective and efficient.”
The procedure was carried out by Dr. Benoit Thomas, a thoracic and vascular surgeon at GZA Ziekenhuizen. Dr. Thomas’ patient was treated for a popliteal artery aneurysm – a bulge in the blood vessel behind the knee which, if left untreated, can potentially cause blood clots to form. Such a blood clot could cause the loss of the leg, a stroke or a heart attack. In the hospital’s hybrid operating room, the patient received a small endovascular stent graft – a tube-shaped structure inserted into the vessel to strengthen its walls.
“I’m proud to have treated the millionth patient with the Azurion, as this system has helped us to improve our workflow and improved the staff experience,” said Dr. Thomas. “A real benefit of the Azurion is that we can use previous diagnostic scans and reduce the amount of radiation for patients and staff. We also see an improvement in image quality and a decrease in procedure time due to the setup of the platform and the bedside control-panel.”
Most of today’s image-guided therapy procedures treat cardiovascular diseases, but its use is expanding into treatment of diseases in other organs such as the brain, lungs and spine.
