Philips Enables Open Access With New Medical IT Family.

Business/Health/High Tech Editors

ANDOVER, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 1, 2002

Customized Data Management Solution Provides Faster Diagnosis;

Offers Anytime, Anywhere Information Access

Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) today introduced Vequion, a new family of clinical IT products and services, aimed at streamlining operations and improving patient care.

The Vequion family of clinical information products and services enables unparalleled integration across legacy IT systems, including multiple modalities and other manufacturers' equipment, as well as customized data management based on individual or departmental preferences used in various imaging modalities and PACS.

A flux of new high-tech imaging technologies are enabling healthcare organizations to cut costs, streamline operations and improve patient care through tighter integration and better management of their IT infrastructure. According to industry research firm Gartner Group, IT solutions that capitalize on current hardware and software without requiring significant re-investment, time-intensive implementation or extensive staff training, meet these needs without compromising the quality of patient care.

Vequion clinical IT products and services seamlessly integrate and enhance current technologies, while creating compatibility across multiple, disparate systems. Vequion is a commitment to eliminate the boundaries that hamper workflow, increase costs and impede quality of care.

"Vequion provides the industry with something it has not seen before," said Jouko Karvinen, president and CEO, Philips Medical Systems. "For example, ViewForum, a leading product in the Vequion family, eliminates borders between imaging modalities and PACS, offering a consistent, highly customizable and intelligent user interface on any work station anywhere, anytime."

Vequion compatible products allow clinicians a fully customized data management experience -- it actually recognizes users and presents data in the consistent format each user prefers. This adaptability and harmonization support department-specific workflow requirements while reducing costs, minimizing staff training and boosting quality of care by streamlining operations.

Furthermore, Philips Professional Services, part of the Vequion family offering, provides customers with integration/interfacing services, systems implementation, clinical consulting, project/program management and training.

Philips will be showcasing new members of the Vequion family, and several other innovative imaging technologies this week at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual conference in Chicago, IL, including:

-- ViewForum: One of the new software-based products within the Vequion family, its functionality lets customers configure a multi-modality workstation environment, offering much more than simply a viewing of clinical images. The easy-to-use software combines viewing, clinical applications and PACS functionality, delivering a personalized, smart and fluid next generation viewing experience. ViewForum Pro (`work in progress') is an option on ViewForum and will add real-time 3D volume rendering with direct manipulation. ViewForum Pro will also provide the ability to conduct Virtual Inspection on large datasets. The ViewForum user interface allows each user to establish a unique personal preference profile so that information, regardless of modality, is immediately displayed in the most efficient way for that physician to proceed with review and analysis.

-- MultiDiagnost Eleva Multi-Purpose X-ray System: Designed to meet growing customer demand for highly flexible and customizable X-ray capabilities, Philips' new MultiDiagnost Eleva is ideal for high and diverse workloads from radiographic fluoroscopy to vascular and interventional procedures while maintaining multifunctional capabilities. This X-ray system allows users to program preferences accommodating new patients, different exam types, multiple operators and parallel functions. In addition, it leverages Philips' DoseWise imaging technology, allowing physicians to obtain high quality images at the lowest possible radiation dose, and CUSTOMerCARE, Philips' industry-leading support program. Ensuring seamless and cost-effective integration in hospital networks, MultiDiagnost Eleva is compliant with industry standards like DICOM. The new ViewForum is fully integrated with the MultiDiagnost Eleva system.

-- New Mx8000 IDT 10: Philips' newest scanner, the Mx8000 IDT 10, is a 10-slice CT scanner designed to deliver superior CT scan performance at an affordable price. The Mx8000 IDT 10 is a key addition to the Mx8000 product family, based on the 16-slice platform and using the same `look and feel' of the Mx8000 IDT scanner. Easily upgradeable, the system is ideal for mid-sized hospitals and entrepreneurs with smaller budgets or larger hospitals looking for a mid-premium system. The Mx8000 IDT 10 delivers excellent cardiac imaging capabilities and performance at a lower price.

-- AcQSIM-MR Radiation Planning Software: Philips' AcQSIM-MR is a new offering that uses MRI images to improve the treatment of cancer through advanced software superior to all other therapy planning offerings on the market today. This first of-its-kind system, includes Philips' Panorama 0.23T R/T open MRI -- a new MR system dedicated to radiation therapy planning -- and enables physicians to more accurately direct radiation treatment to the diseased area and spares more healthy tissue, positively affecting patient outcomes and reducing costs.

-- New EnVisor: Philips' EnVisor is an ultrasound system that offers performance and features previously unavailable for less than $100,000. EnVisor delivers superb clinical performance, advanced ergonomic design and on-board workstation capabilities in a full-featured echo system. EnVisor's superior features include Intelligent Doppler, patented Pulse Inversion Harmonic Imaging and Microfine Focusing, as well as integrated stress echo. In addition, it offers clinicians a number of unique benefits including quick access to stored data, full editing of images, loops and reports, excellent mobility, one-touch presets for exams, and CD, floppy disk, MOD and DICOM storage.

-- New Intera MR Family: Philips is introducing the newly designed Intera family of compact MR systems with powerful new imaging features that can handle every application from microscopy to whole body imaging. SENSE, Philips' unique parallel imaging technique, now speeds image acquisition by up to 600 percent, shortening exams for patients, decreasing motion artifacts and increasing throughput. New SENSE Head Coil enables extremely fast, high-quality neurological imaging in 20 seconds. Philips' Microscopy Coil Set enables small field-of-view imaging, ideal for imaging of the skin, eyes, small joints and superficial vessels. The new Whole-Body Imaging Package enables single scan imaging of the entire body in less than 10 minutes, supporting comprehensive oncology and vascular screening. Spearheaded by Nova gradients, Intera's Galaxy gradients provide exceptional power for handling demanding applications. The improved RapidView reconstructor can now reconstruct 860 images per second, ideal for processing large data sets with ease.

-- New Panorama Open MR family: The newly designed Panorama open MR family delivers remarkable speed, ease of use and high quality images ideal for obese, pediatric or claustrophobic patients. Panorama's convenient sideways entry and general spaciousness makes the system extremely patient-friendly. The Panorama family includes the Panorama 0.6T, the only high-field open system with a C-arm design, and the Panorama 0.23T, providing a new design optimized for patient comfort, faster reconstruction time than before (300 images/second) and new gradient specifications. Philips' Panorama 0.23T I/T supports MR-guided interventions, resulting in minimally invasive procedures, more targeted surgery, reduced recovery time and shorter hospital stays. Optional OptoGuide functionality enables real-time needle tracking. Philips' new Panorama 0.23T R/T is the first and only MR system to enable radiation therapy planning using MR data sets. The Panorama also features the new and consistent Philips User Interface, an essential element of the Vequion clinical IT family of products & services.

-- MxView: Philips' redesigned MxView CT Visualization System, developed specifically for multi-slice image review and manipulation, now features new functionalities to highlight vessel and cardiac stenosis. The MxView is fast, easy to use, can be integrated with any DICOM Scanner, and configurable to meet the needs of any size department. Furthermore, MxView features Vequion through integration with the new ViewForum viewing software.

For more information on Philips imaging products, please visit booth #7150 and 7750.

About Philips:

Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands is one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales of $28.8 billion (EUR 32.3 billion) in 2001. It is a global leader in color television sets, lighting, electric shavers, medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring, and one-chip TV products. Its 184,000 employees in more than 60 countries are active in the areas of lighting, consumer electronics, domestic appliances, components, semiconductors, and medical systems. Philips is quoted on the NYSE (symbol: PHG), London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and other stock exchanges. News from Philips is located at www.philips.com/newscenter.