Interview: Ronald Tabaksblat on Philips' next-gen image guided therapy system
Earlier this year, healthcare technology company Philips made one of its biggest global product launches with its next-generation image guided therapy system, Philips Azurion.
MPN recently spoke to the company’s senior vice president, business leader of image guided therapy (IGT) systems, Ronald Tabaksblat, about the launch and the challenges of developing such a complicated system.
To begin with Tabaksblat explains who Azurion was developed for. The system benefits interventional cardiologists, interventional radiologists and an assortment of surgeons who all perform procedures in which small incisions are made and devices are manipulated through the body to get to certain locations.
“There are a couple of things that are extraordinarily important when you do a procedure like that.” Tabaksblat says. “First of all latency, very important in the gaming industry you don’t want latency between button presses and character actions. Now in a game it’s a game right, in our case it’s not a game it’s life or death. So, when a doctor watches a balloon inflate to a certain size, he or she wants to know in real time the size of the balloon so he or she can take decisions as to if they inflate further or if they are done. If they don’t have that information correctly due to a latency issue, they might inflate the balloon too far, rupture the artery and risk the patient”.
He goes on to tell me that as procedures have gotten more advanced, the need for more information has become more important. This has resulted in the interventional suite becoming a very complicated place where numerous pieces of equipment are involved. The various pieces of equipment mean that different sources of information are placed in multiple locations. Doctors often have to look at different screen to get a full understanding of a patient.
Alongside this the “healthcare system is under a tremendous amount of stress” Tabaksblat says. Previous models of pay per procedure have proven unsustainable and now there is an emphasis on value based healthcare, Tabaksblat explains. Healthcare institutes it seems are now under more pressure than ever to deliver cost effective procedures and Philips recognises this.
We’ve created a user interface and a user experience that is truly 21st century
“Our customers who do these advanced procedures, also need to take into account financial and economic metrics and have need to achieve certain performance goals. Both in terms of outcomes but also in terms of efficiency.” Tabaksblat says.
As such Azurion has been built upon the basis of three pillars: Ease of use; standardisation and efficiency.
Tabaksblat explains each pillar and how Azurion incorporates these facets into its design.
“We’ve created a user interface and a user experience that is truly 21st century. With large and accessible touch screen displays that features ease of use and robustness as well as the ability to integrate information seamlessly in real-time without causing any latency issues.”
The system has been built so surgeons can import checklists and protocols. This allows surgeons to standardise their procedures, helping to ensure standardisation of procedures, Tabaksblat explains.
It’s not just the hardware and software that Philips say can benefit customers, it’s also the services that it offers.
“We’ve built it in such a way so the technology enables clinicians to perform on more patients during the day. This is complimented by services, so it’s not just about technology, we also deliver services that enable customers to achieve their performance goals.” Tabaksblat says.
At the time of launch, Azurion has been established in 20 sites, which include two in the UK. The company is working on gathering data on efficiency improvements, a process that Tabaksblat states takes time.
Whilst Tabaksblat speaks with a passion for his industry and for Azurion, he does say that Philips were apprehensive about the change in technology that Azurion offers.
“We were initially a little worried about it because it’s a significant change to our previous generation systems, but what customers tell me is that the basis is still Philips. We are the market leader in this space, so many people have been trained on this equipment. So, the basis is still Philips but it’s gotten much more intuitive. Actually, with a limited amount of training we see customers go up the learning curve very quickly.”
Azurion’s ease of use, one of the core pillars of its design, is benefitted by its real-time multi-workspot technology, Philips ConnectOS. The technology has been designed to allow a whole team of operating staff work with the system at the same time.
“The ConnectOS is really the basis of the system. It is the technology that enables us to deliver both an integration of data and a way to not affect latency. The doctor wants to be able to control every device in the room and interact with it. Also, every member needs to be able to work with the system at real time without disturbing the progress of another member in the room. That’s really what we set out to do with the ConnectOS.” Tabaksblat says.
We end the interview discussing the importance of technology in today’s healthcare institutions. Tabaksblat assures me that hospitals aren’t concerned with technology, what they are concerned with is meeting goals of patient satisfaction, mortality, complication rates, things like those. Technology however, can provide the means to achieve these goals.
“Technology per se is not important, what is important is that you provide the means to achieve those goals. Azurion allows hospitals to achieve those goals through some of the things I’ve mentioned. The checklists and protocols that ensure you a surgical team does a procedure according to the latest standards, extraordinarily important.
“Even on patient satisfaction, because you can integrate basically any device on the system, even while the patient is on the table and the doctor is explaining the procedure to the physician, I’ve seen customers use it to access video material that they have on their laptop, saying this is what I’m going to do, this is what you’re going to experience, this is what you’re going to see on this screen and this is how we’re going to end the procedure. That’s extraordinarily important for the patient experience.”