Philips Introduces New Products and Technologies, Dedicated Cardiovascular Care Business Team at ACC.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

ANDOVER, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 30, 2003

First of its kind, integrated multi-modality approach formalizes

collaboration, supports interconnectivity and reduces costs -

Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE:PHG)(AEX:PHI) announced today that its Medical Systems division has established a focused Cardiovascular Care Business Team to develop new technologies and solutions that meet the unique and growing needs of cardiovascular professionals. Philips' collaborative approach builds upon the company's best in class imaging, diagnostic, IT and professional services -- offering customers highly integrated, customized solutions for cardiovascular care. Additionally, Philips will showcase new cardiovascular care products and technologies, such as enhanced cardiac CT software and advanced MR coronary imaging techniques, at the 52nd Annual Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) in Chicago, IL.

Professionals in cardiovascular medicine - physicians, hospital administrators and IT departments - rely heavily on technologies that enable collaboration and delivery of timely quality care to patients. Philips recognizes the crucial role that seamlessly integrated, customized solutions play within the industry and has formalized resources and expertise needed to enhance connectivity and workflow, as well as overall clinical care. To help customers realize these benefits, Philips will:

-- Make available the resources and experts needed for true

collaboration within cardiovascular care.

-- Provide a focused approach to product customization that

enhances customers' existing systems, regardless of vendor,

and supports compatibility and streamlined workflow.

-- Update professionals and hospital decision-makers about new

advances in technology that have the potential to drastically

change the way cardiovascular medicine is practiced.

The Business Team's first initiative, the creation of a global Cardiovascular Advisory Board, will help to define, refine and shape Philips offerings. The Advisory Board, which includes representatives from leading cardiovascular institutions from around the world, will meet regularly to reinforce the focus on customer and patient needs, provide feedback on company ideas and help identify issues and trends in cardiovascular care.

In addition, Philips is planning a satellite CME conference in the fall of 2003 to help educate clinical care providers around the globe on how to optimally integrate emerging CV imaging technologies into patient care.

"Philips' new Cardiovascular Care Business Team has a clearly defined strategy: to provide the cardiovascular community with the innovative products and services they need to advance disease detection and prevention, further research and enhance workflow," said David M. Freeman, newly appointed vice president of Philips Cardiology Marketing. "Through the successful integration of best-in-class cardiology-focused companies, HP/Agilent, Marconi, ATL and ADAC, we've acquired the technology necessary to deliver on what our customers are asking for today and for the future. Now our charge within Philips is to build collaborative relationships with customers, leverage our technology to streamline and fully integrate care delivery, and further clinical utility for clinicians."

One example of the company's new approach to cardiovascular care is the recent collaboration between Philips and MidSouth Heart Institute of Memphis, TN. The MidSouth Heart Institute, opened in 2003 and is one of the most comprehensive heart and vascular diagnostic facilities in the U.S. It houses nearly all Philips' technologies for cardiovascular care, including Tennessee's only 3D rotational angiography system that allows doctors to see multi-dimensional views of the heart in real-time for more precise diagnosis of lesions and placement of devices. MidSouth Heart and Philips - as well as several other centers - are sharing data collected at the Institute to create a predictive model that will link the best single test to specific symptoms, outcomes and interventional plans.

"Cardiac patients require a wide range of diagnostic and therapeutic technologies for their care," said Frank Martin, M.D., interventional cardiologist, MidSouth Heart Institute. "Working closely with Philips, we have developed a heart clinic comprising the latest imaging technology that offers patients in this region un-paralleled cardiovascular care and allows us do to further research around the world to help prevent plaque formation in the adolescent and identify unstable blockage in the adult."

Philips also has a partnership with Edward Heart Hospital in Naperville, IL, one of a growing number of hospitals across the U.S. focused on heart disease, to provide technologies for state-of-the-art cardiovascular care and research.

"What impressed us was that Philips sent a team of people to Edward to ask questions and solve problems - as a true partner would - instead of coming in and selling us products," said Mark Goodwin, M.D., cardiologist, Midwest Heart Specialists, and director of the Edward Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory. "Philips challenged our preconceived notions and showed us where we could improve by sharing information and leveraging the company's deep knowledge of the cardiovascular industry."

Latest Efforts to Meet Customer Needs

Philips has formed an alliance with Aspen Healthcare Metrics, Inc., a national healthcare solutions organization, to co-develop and provide business solutions that enhance clinical service lines. These solutions focus on reducing acquisition costs of key physician preference items, increasing revenues and improving productivity. The Philips-Aspen alliance will provide a competitive advantage for customers because, unlike other companies, Aspen utilizes a clinical solutions model that combines powerful databases with proven processes led by clinical experts. These solutions offer expertise and knowledge designed to maximize efficiencies and cost-management of healthcare facilities.

In addition, a validation of Philips' commitment to collaboration is the company's long-established Cardiovascular MR Network, a group of more than 195 researchers and scientists from around the world who collaborate with one another and with Philips to continually move the field of cardiac MR (CMR) forward. Groundbreaking improvements in CMR have resulted from multi-center trials conducted by the Network. These efforts helped identify improved MR imaging techniques, now embodied in the new Intera CV CMR system currently being showcased at ACC.

New Cardiovascular Products Introduced at ACC

This year, Philips, a global market leader in cardiology and vascular imaging for diagnostics and intervention, will showcase several new cardiovascular care technologies and services at ACC:

-- Computed Tomography (CT) - Philips celebrates the delivery of

the world's most capable set of cardiovascular CT scanning and

analysis tools. With these new capabilities, Philips CT users

can quickly and easily scan and evaluate heart anatomy and

function with excellent image quality even for patients with

heart rates of 115 beats per minute. As a result, the need for

the administration of routine beta-blockers is virtually

eliminated allowing a broad range of patients to be evaluated.

Specific new capabilities include stenosis analysis, Left

Ventricle/Right Ventricle analysis and function, stent

planning and virtual angioscopy, all with a single, fast,

non-invasive CT scan. Customers can acquire these new

capabilities through a series of comprehensive yet affordable

packages that are designed to exceed current and future

requirements. Cardiologists and radiologists alike will find

an appropriate solution based on clinical need as well as the

level of comfort with cardiovascular CT imaging.

-- Magnetic Resonance (MR) - The latest version of Philips'

patient-friendly Intera CV 1.5T MR system, specifically

designed for advanced cardiovascular imaging, now features the

company's ViewForum multi-modality workstation software

enabling powerful off-line viewing, quantification and

reporting tools.

Other recent enhancements include the latest release of the

SENSE technique that allows a six-fold increase in acquisition

time; new Nova gradients with 66 mT/m, the strongest currently

available on the market; and the Advanced Cardiac MR Package

and Cardiac Performance Package for expanded applications

power and free-breathing cardiac imaging. The New Intera CV

also features robust coronary artery imaging capabilities;

enabling faster scanning, higher contrast-to-noise ratio and

enhanced vessel image sharpness.

-- Medical IT - Being shown for the first time at a major

cardiology meeting, Vequion is Philips' next-generation family

of customizable clinical IT products, solutions and

professional services aimed at streamlining procedures and

improving patient care. The Vequion family allows users of

Philips' medical diagnostic equipment to seamlessly integrate

and enhance current image data management technologies, while

creating compatibility across multiple, disparate systems.

Vequion is a commitment to eliminate obstacles that hamper

workflow, increase costs and impede quality of patient care.

-- Multi-Modality Image Application Software - A

Vequion-competent product, ViewForum is Philips' new viewing

and processing environment for large and complex

multi-modality datasets. ViewForum can be connected to

Xcelera, Philips' integrated image & information management

solution for cardiology. ViewForum gives access to the proven

EasyVision Cardiac MR analysis packages, including Functional

Analysis and Q-Flow. With ViewForum, users can customize their

virtual working environment using worklists, personalized

display protocols and role-based access that maintains

security and presents only the information the user requires.

-- Cardiography - PageWriterTouch, a new state-of-the-art

cardiograph, combines several unique features that enable

rapid generation of accurate ECG reports resulting in both

faster exam times for ECG patients and more streamlined

analysis for their clinicians. PageWriterTouch features a

15-inch color touch-screen display, laptop-style keypad,

ergonomically redesigned cart and the new Philips' 12-lead

algorithm for reliable, accurate ECG data analysis. The system

is especially beneficial for hospitals that perform a high

number of ECGs.

-- General X-Ray - The BV Pulsera high-end mobile C-arm system is

suitable for cardiovascular examinations as well as surgical

applications. The system can be used inside the operating

theatre for cardiac surgery and pacemaker implementation, for

example; or outside the theatre for diagnostic cardiac

imaging, interventional cardiac imaging in stent implanting,

PTCA and electro-physiology procedures. A new 'movement

stopping' pulsed fluoroscopy feature enables optimal

fluoroscopic guidance for catheter and guide wire positioning,

providing clinicians with clear motion, blur-free images.

Images can be reviewed and analyzed at the dedicated BV family

workstation, using validated CQA software and vascular

processing packages. These images can also be transferred for

review and analysis to an existing BV Pulsera workstation

(also Vequion compatible), thus offering an ideal back-up

and/or overflow solution.

-- X-Ray for Cardiology - The Integris Allura with dynamic Flat

Detector enables clinicians to see and work in the smallest

vessels of the heart, while reducing X-ray exposure and

procedure times for themselves and their patients. The system

offers a next-generation Flat Detector with such innovative

features as Philips' exclusive refresh light and SPIRIT image

processing for superb image quality. The Integris Allura with

Flat Detector system, combined with Philips' exclusive MRC 

X-ray tube - the most advanced on the market today - and

SpectraBeam copper filtration, enable the user to capture

excellent image quality at the lowest possible patient dose.

-- Ultrasound Image Application Software - Philips is introducing

the first significant upgrade, QLAB 2.0, to its QLAB Advanced

Quantification Software, a PC-based software for diagnostic

research in ultrasound. QLAB 2.0 software now provides Strain

and Parametric Quantification capabilities in addition to

enabling clinicians to assess image content and Intima Media

Thickness (IMT), and create AVI and BMP files for digital

presentations. The Parametric Quantification (PQ) module

provides an easy to use interface for the research analysis of

contrast images and uses a color-coded representation to

easily see contrast intensity changes. Similar to QLAB's

Region of Interest (ROI) quantification plug-in, PQ allows the

user to sort contrast images, quickly draw a ROI, and analyze

the dynamics of contrast intensity changes. The Strain

Quantification (SQ) module provides the means to analyze and

quantify Tissue Doppler loops from Philips ultrasound systems.

The SQ module is used in the research evaluation of regional

cardiac wall motion and function.

How all these technologies work together to enhance cardiovascular care will be the central display at the Philips booth # 2013 at ACC. The Cardiovascular Care Business Team has created two virtual patient technology demonstrations -- Gerard Donovan and Rita Williams, being treated respectively for chest pain and arrhythmia -- and has built case scenarios to follow each patient's treatment path on one, fully integrated information system. Philips is the only CV partner who can ensure full connectivity among multi-vendor technologies and legacy systems - utilizing its team of Professional Service experts.

About Royal Philips Electronics:

Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands is one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales of USD 30.1 billion (EUR 31.8 billion) in 2002. It is a global leader in color television sets, lighting, electric shavers, medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring, and one-chip TV products. Its 170,000 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/usa/

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