Philips wins Dutch Design Award for the Kitten Scanner
October 20, 2009
Eindhoven, The Netherlands - Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) has received a Dutch Design Award for the Kitten Scanner a product that supports teaching children about what happens during a CAT (or CT) examination.
According to Stefano Marzano, CEO and Chief Creative Director, Philips Design, “Creating value for people is at the core of Philips Design's vision and I am proud that the work we have done to improve people's quality of life in all types of societies has been recognized with this award."
Kitten Scanner
The award winning Kitten Scanner supports teaching children about what happens during a CAT (or CT) examination. The Kitten Scanner informs children (and parents) and prepares them for the examination in a simple, fun way.
The Kitten scanner is placed in the waiting room of a hospital and consists of a miniaturized and stylized version of a CAT (CT) scanner, a TV screen and several animal characters (a crocodile, an elephant, a robot and a chicken) that children can identify with. While waiting for their scheduled examination, the children are invited to play with the Kitten Scanner by an animation on the TV screen and can choose an animal character and place it on the bed of the Kitten Scanner. The child can then slide the bed and character into the bore of the scanner, mimicking what happens in reality. When the animal character is in the bore of the scanner, its embedded RFID tag activates an animation on the TV screen, telling the story of that particular character. Who is the character, what did they do, why do they need to go to the hospital for a scan. Through this story-telling, the animation shows children about how a real CAT scanner works, how it can see inside the body without cutting it open.
Jeroen Raijmakers, Global Director Healthcare Design, Philips Design, says "The Kitten Scanner is an element of Ambient Experience solutions that we create for CT and MRI environments in radiology departments of hospitals. People focused analysis of processes and experiences that pediatric patients and their family have. In the waiting room, children are made familiar with the imaging procedure they have to endure in a playful way. Positive distraction as a means to create experiences with less anxiety is continued in the Ambient Experience environments. This approach results in reduced numbers of retakes and sedation rates for young children, as well as an improved workflow for healthcare professionals."
The Dutch Design Awards jury stated: "Role play brings surprising possibilities in helping children understand the process they will undergo in a medical scan. This is the next step in humanizing these kinds of products."
For further information, please contact:
Philips Design/ Communications
Corine van Buren - Koopmans
Tel: +31 6 11039136
E-mail: corine.koopmans@philips.com
About Royal Philips Electronics
Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) is a diversified Health and Well-being company, focused on improving people’s lives through timely innovations. As a world leader in healthcare, lifestyle and lighting, Philips integrates technologies and design into people-centric solutions, based on fundamental customer insights and the brand promise of “sense and simplicity”. Headquartered in the Netherlands, Philips employs approximately 116,000 employees in more than 60 countries worldwide. With sales of EUR 26 billion in 2008, the company is a market leader in cardiac care, acute care and home healthcare, energy efficient lighting solutions and new lighting applications, as well as lifestyle products for personal well-being and pleasure with strong leadership positions in flat TV, male shaving and grooming, portable entertainment and oral healthcare. News from Philips is located at www.philips.com/newscenter.
About Philips Design Philips Design, with 8 branch studios in Europe, the USA and Asia Pacific. Its creative force of some 500 professionals, representing more than 35 different nationalities, embraces disciplines as diverse as psychology, cultural sociology, anthropology and trend research in addition to the more 'conventional' design-related skills. The mission of these professionals is about creating solutions that satisfy people's needs, empower them and make them happier, all of this without destroying the world in which we live.
