For many who may only see the inside of the powerful machines once or twice in their lifetime, getting an MRI can be a scary prospect—especially for children. Philips’ solution for making a scan less scary? Turn it into a game.
The company has launched a digital coaching initiative for parents and children to better prepare the patient, help them cope with the stress of the procedure and get out the jitters before having to lie still for a clean image.
“As adults, many of us can experience anxiety and stress during an MRI exam, and this is especially true for our youngest patients,” said Werner Satter, general manager of Philips’ healthcare environment and experience design, in a statement.
RELATED: To Philips, the future means selling more than a better MRI machine
“With Philips Pediatric Coaching, we deploy gamification to help children better prepare for their MRI scan in a nonthreatening environment at home, interacting with the same character and voice like Ollie the Elephant and friends, who also coaches them at the hospital and can even coach them during the MRI procedure itself,” Satter said.
Through a mobile app, children get paired up with a virtual buddy they can lead through a scan themselves—by getting the chance to pretend to be the radiologist, they get to teach their buddy how to lie still for the best picture.
Getting a high-quality image can be difficult, resulting in pediatric scans that are often performed under sedation or general anesthesia, which can greatly increase a procedure’s time and cost.
RELATED: Philips puts forward new MRI method enabling total heart scans in less than one minute
When the family arrives at the hospital, the same buddy character from the app will interact with the child as they play with a toy CT machine—dubbed the “Kitten Scanner”—allowing them to scan various animals and see what’s inside. Once inside the MRI, the character is projected onto an in-bore screen to show the patient how and when to hold their breath.
The coaching program joins Philips’ previous efforts to make MRI scans a less taxing experience for children. In addition to redesigned exam rooms with soft lighting and comfortable colors, the company teamed up with Disney earlier this year to bring its pantheon of animated characters to hospitals in Europe.
Through a series of specially made animated shorts, familiar faces such as Mickey Mouse, Aladdin, Yoda and Marvel’s superheroes aim to help guide a child through a procedure, led with clinical input from Philips developers.