The MR Patient Experience Suite is part of GE Healthcare (Chalfont St. Giles, UK) healthymagination strategy to improve the quality of patient care. “GE is very serious about humanizing radiology and making its MR systems patient-friendly, safe and without compromise,” said Jacques Coumans, general manager for Premium MR Systems at GE Healthcare. “The new MR Suite allows a patient to be “transported” to Tahiti, the Appalachians [USA, Canada], or the Keukenhof [Lisse, The Nederlands] 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.”

The MR Patient Experience Suite was conceived by GE Global Design and was created by PDC Facilities, Inc., to reflect the award-winning themes of GE’s w-series (wide bore) MR. The suite integrates the “caring hands” design philosophy of the Discovery MR750w system, with lighting, interior decor, scenery, and music or sounds that can be tailored by the patient using his or her own portable media player. Light, form, color, materials, and texture transform the exam environment from one that is cold and clinical to, for example, a home library and fireside.

Different patient age groups have different needs. The Suite addresses those needs with special moods and themes for pediatric and geriatric patients. To soften additionally the feel of an MR exam, GE Healthcare teamed up with VisualTherapy’s (New York, NY, USA) Joey Fischer, an expert in nature photography who pioneered the use of imagery to help reduce the stress and anxiety of patients undergoing diagnostic or therapeutic medical procedures.

The w-series also incorporates the GEM Suite of patient-embracing, lightweight radio frequency (RF) coils, designed to adapt to varying patient shapes, and which enables feet-first exams for all anatomies, aimed at reducing patient anxiety.

The MR Patient Experience Suite is based on award-winning designs of GE Healthcare’s 3.0T and 1.5T w-series (wide bore) MR systems, which debuted one year ago. The w-series received the IDEA Silver Award for patient-centric MR design by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA; New York, NY, USA) earlier in 2011.

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 as of January 2012.

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