Imaging array critical in COVID care
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has put the spotlight on emerging medical technologies needed to provide the best healthcare for epidemic prevention, emergency rescue and disaster relief situations.
Royal Philips, a global leader in health technology, has introduced in the Philippines a diagnostic imaging cabin and container, an offsite computed tomography (CT) and diagnostic X-ray (DXR) solutions.
The cabins, CT scanner and DXR systems are also suitable in emergency situations and in scenarios requiring rapid capacity expansion of diagnostic imaging facilities.
The CT cabin is a container converted into a functional and portable CT facility that can be placed in the hospital, just outside of it or even in a mobile environment like a truck.
This is assembled offsite in order to enable healthcare professionals to perform diagnostic imaging procedures remotely, thereby limiting their exposure to infected patients.
It is equipped with a protective lead shield to manage radiation exposure, UV light that sterilizes the space, and a laboratory grade computer room for immediate analysis of results.
Some of the products that can be deployed in the cabin are the Philips Access CT and Philips Incisive CT range. CT is considered the modality of choice when diagnosing pulmonary damage.
Although CT scan is a reliable diagnostic imaging method, this is not always readily available in emergency room settings.
Comes now the DXR cabin, which is also a container converted into a functional and portable facility. The cabin installation has a fast turnaround and deployment time. Some of the products that can be deployed in the cabins are
DuraDiagnost and DuraDiagnost F30.
While X-Ray alone cannot be used to diagnose COVID-19, some facilities are using it for detecting inflammation in the lung as an indication of a potential COVID-19 infection. This is done as a rapid first triaging step due to time pressure as the Polymerase Chain Reaction tests can take up to 48 hours.
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“The global COVID-19 pandemic has severely increased patient volume and impacted clinical workflow, resulting in challenging working conditions for our frontline health workers. As the mobile and flexible diagnostic imaging cabins enable healthcare professionals to perform medical procedures remotely, this minimizes health workers’ exposure to patients in the hospital, thus minimizing their risk of cross infection,” said Ashwin Chari, country manager, Philips Philippines.
“The innovative, plug-and-play cabins aim to improve the working conditions of health workers to allow for better health outcomes for them, their patients, and the society as a whole,” he added.