Philips joins forces with leading Middle East healthcare providers

Philips Healthcare, which has seen sales across the Middle East rise by 34 percent during 2007, believes the key to improving health outcomes is through strong partnerships with leading healthcare providers across the region. Philips has sponsored Arab Health for the last seven years and this year is also a Platinum sponsor of the Diagnostic Imaging conference and Gold sponsor of the Interventional Cardiology and Minimally Invasive conferences. Additionally, the company has worked with Dubai Healthcare City to set up a Mobile Health Unit where medical professionals attending the congress can themselves be checked for risk factors linked to conditions which represent a serious health challenge in the region. The initiative reflects Philips' conviction that people should be empowered to look after their own wellbeing at every stage of care, including before they are ill.

As part of its ongoing commitment to the region, and to designing innovative people-focused solutions, Philips has also been working with Tawam Hospital to create one of the most advanced Patient Data Management Systems in the world at the Al Ain, Abu Dhabi-based hospital. The system allows patient data to be collected from life support equipment and centrally stored online, providing instant access to clinical staff from anywhere on the site. It is already up and running in the intensive care unit and the hospital plans to expand it to other areas including the high dependency, pediatric and neonatal ICU wards.

Steve Rusckowski, CEO of Philips Healthcare said: "We are delighted to partner with leading healthcare providers in the Middle East to help them deliver the people-focused healthcare in the region. The innovations which we are highlighting at Arab Health 2008 are perfect demonstrations of how we empower people to improve their health and wellbeing at every stage of the care cycle, from prevention and screening to diagnosis, treatment, monitoring and management. Through our creative insights and clinical expertise we are able to look beyond the traditional areas of diagnosis and treatment to help medical professionals deliver the highest quality healthcare designed around the needs of patients."

Arab Health 2008 will also provide the first opportunity for doctors in the region to discover more about the exciting potential of one of Philips' latest innovations, the Brilliance iCT 256-slice scanner. The device is so powerful it can capture an image of the entire heart in just two beats. It is designed to make the job of the clinicians easier by producing clear and highly-detailed 3D images of the inner workings of the body with exceptional acquisition speed. At the same time it also improves the experience of the patients through technology that reduces radiation doses by up to 80 percent .

Other products being unveiled in the Middle East for the first time at Arab Health 2008 include IntelliVue MMS X2 a new multi-measurement module designed to help clinicians and first responders better focus on treating patients and its new Live 3D transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) probe.