Partnership Radboud University Medical Center and Philips for patient monitoring

Radboud University Medical Center and Philips have signed a hospital-wide ten-year partnership for patient monitoring. This means that all departments at Radboud University Medical Center will have access to Philips patient monitors. A service contract has also been signed for keeping the monitors and the underlying IT platform state-of-the-art. This agreement stipulates that Radboud University Medical Center always receives the latest updates and software for patient monitoring.

Radboud University Medical Center was looking for a reliable, high-quality and future-proof patient monitoring system in which data is easily available everywhere. Radboud University Medical Center also wanted to reduce the number of unnecessary alarms and use data to optimize patient monitoring and scientific research. The Philips platform offers new possibilities and opportunities to get started with this.

Software helps healthcare providers

Numerous patient monitors are used in a hospital environment. There are of course the patient monitors at the patient’s bedside in the operating room, in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and in various other departments. But there are also interchangeable monitors that can be used during patient transport, so that no data is lost. All these monitors are connected to an IT platform with different software programs and algorithms. The software can support healthcare providers in interpreting patient data, for example to provide the best possible insight into the patient’s health status. Algorithms help identify when a patient’s condition is deteriorating.

There are continuous new software developments for the operating systems of the patient monitors or the central station in the department. New clinical software and security updates are also being released all the time. By signing the service contract, Radboud University Medical Center always receives the latest updates and software for patient monitoring.

Improve usability

Innovations to improve the user-friendliness of patient monitors are occurring at a rapid pace. For example, Philips recently launched a new version of its IntelliVue patient monitor software that reduces the sound of alarms by as much as two-thirds. In addition, the company recently introduced the Visual Patient Avatar, which brings together patient data during surgery in a ‘virtual patient’ on the monitor screen. This helps healthcare providers interpret the data more easily.

“Patient monitoring is an innovation focus of Philips. With our technology we try to support healthcare providers as best as possible, so that they can take better care of their patients. The hardware, the monitors, are the visible part of the monitoring system, but the invisible part, the software, is the part where we can make a big difference for healthcare providers. By bringing together patient data and distilling information from it, these systems and software can support healthcare providers to better care for patients and intervene more quickly when necessary,” says Léon Kempeneers, Managing Director of Philips Benelux. Kempeneers expects that there will be many further developments in this area, including the introduction of artificial intelligence.