Royal Philips Electronics N.V. And Ascent Profit Sign €27 Million Contract To Deliver 200 Digital Radiography Systems To China In 2007
Growing at a rate of approximately 11 percent each year, the Chinese healthcare market is currently one of the most rapidly expanding in the world. As patient numbers increase so does the pressure on the country’s hospitals, which already treat more than double the number of patients of similar facilities in Europe. While China’s healthcare facilities seek to increase the quality of care for an increasing number of patients, finding ways to simplify diagnostic procedures and access to patient data becomes more important.
Digital radiography solutions are now being broadly implemented in the country’s major hospitals, due to their ability to improve efficiency and deliver high quality images consistently. Through the agreement with Ascent Profit, Chinese hospitals now have access to Philips DigitalDiagnost and Philips Essenta DR. These affordable, full-featured solutions are designed to provide small- and medium-sized hospitals with advanced digital X-ray capabilities and more efficient digital image workflow.
“At Philips we understand that the needs of every market and every customer are different. That’s why we work closely with our dealers in China to ensure our world-leading solutions meet the needs of our customers in the fast-growing high-end market in China,” said David Jin, CEO, Philips Medical Systems China. “Our recent introduction of economical radiography systems demonstrates our commitment to making advanced equipment for improved patient care available at a price point that will drive broad adoption in emerging markets such as China’s.”
“Digital radiography is one of the fastest-growing segments in the Chinese healthcare market,” commented Lin Yang Chen, general manager of Ascent Profit. “This agreement means we can provide major hospitals across the country with a sophisticated digital radiography solution, enabling them to raise the quality of diagnosis while increasing the number of patients they can treat.”
About Philips DigitalDiagnost
The DigitalDiagnost is Philips’ state of the art solution for direct digital radiography. The solution is highly reliable – a key feature for the Chinese market, due to the high number of patients treated on a daily basis. Its time-saving dual-detector system enables rapid patient positioning – making the switch from table exams to chest or skull exposures as convenient as possible.
In order to support the clinician’s daily routine, the DigitalDiagnost includes ergonomic features like motorized horizontal movements into its detector columns and an extended move-to-position functionality for easy switching between under-table and chest positions. The DigitalDiagnost’s detector is based on caesium iodine technology with a nine million pixel matrix and a large 17” x 17” square detector area, making it suitable for a wide range of applications, including imaging bariatric patients.
About Philips Essenta DR
In addition to its success with DigitalDiagnost, Philips recently announced the introduction of the Essenta DR, which has been specifically designed for developing markets such as China. Using Philips’ expertise this economic digital radiography system includes many features previously not available to this market, including UNIQUE image processing, which harmonizes the image perception of Computed Radiography (CR) and Direct Radiography (DR) images.
Other advantages of Essenta DR include its small footprint, which enables the solution to fit into small X-ray rooms, as well as its advanced patient safety concept, which includes safety locks, collision protection and a light barrier. Due to the high quality detector the solution also enables low dose imaging.
About Royal Philips Electronics
Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) is a global leader in healthcare, lifestyle and technology, delivering products, services and solutions through the brand promise of “sense and simplicity”. Headquartered in the Netherlands, Philips employs approximately 121,700 employees in more than 60 countries worldwide. With sales of EUR 27 billion in 2006, the company is a market leader in medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring systems, energy efficient lighting solutions, personal care and home appliances, as well as consumer electronics. News from Philips is located at www.philips.com/newscenter.
About Ascent Profit
Founded in 1994, Ascent Profit has 22 sales offices across China and 250 employees focused on healthcare products. With a customer base of more than 2000 hospitals the company realized sales of $70m in 2005. Contacts
For Philips: Europe: Gert van Santen Tel: +33 40 27 82682 Email: gert.van.santen@philips.com