GE Healthcare introduced their innovative Magnetic Resonance (MR) Patience Experience Suite at the Radiological Society of North America (RNSA) 2011, as part of their strategy to improve the quality of patient care by making the process more ‘human’. The suite aims to steer away from the clinical impression of a traditional MR exam by softening its look, feel and sound to make it more ‘human’ to patients.

Jacques Coumans, general manager for Premium MR Systems at GE Healthcare commented:

“GE is very serious about humanizing radiology and making its MR systems patient-friendly, safe and without compromise. 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.”

Conceived by GE Global Design and created by PDC Facilities, Inc., the MR Patient Experience Suite reflects GE’s award-winning themes of their w-series (wide bore) MR, and includes the ‘caring hands’ design philosophy of the Discovery MR750w system, which features lighting, interior décor, scenery and music or sound-effects that patients can customize with their own portable media player. The patients can change lights, form, color, texture and materials to transform a cold and clinical examination area into a cozy, welcoming environment like a home library and fireplace for example.

In addition, the MR Patient Experience Suite also caters for the different needs for all ages, including special mood-effects and themes for pediatric and geriatric patients, and to enhance patient experience even further, GE Healthcare collaborated with Joey Fischer, an expert in nature photography at VisualTherapy, who pioneered using imagery to help reduce stress and anxiety in patients who undergo diagnostic or therapeutic medical procedures.

The GEM suite’s w-series also aims to reduce patient anxiety. It contains lightweight radio frequency (RF) coils, which are designed to adapt to different patient shapes and enabling ‘feet-first’ examinations for all anatomies.

Based on award-winning designs of GE Healthcare’s 3.0T and 1.5T w-series (wide bore) MR systems that were first presented last year, the MR Patient Experience Suite’s was awarded by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) with the prestigious IDEA® Silver Award for patient-centric MR design for its w-series earlier this year.

As of January 2012, the modular elements of the MR Patient Experience Suite can be ordered from, and installed by, PDC Facilities with any of GE’s w-series MR systems.

GE Healthcare at RSNA 2011

The conference of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) is an annual event in Chicago that provides a forum for showcasing the latest innovations in medical imaging. For those attending the conference, GE Healthcare can be found at booth number 3335 in the McCormick Place south hall where they will distribute news and information throughout the week’s event using their YouTube channel.

Written by Petra Rattue