Royal Philips, a global leader in health technology, has delivered a broad range of health technology solutions to the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) - Canada’s largest and foremost heart health center dedicated to understanding, treating, and preventing heart disease.  On Friday, March 23, the hospital celebrated the grand opening of their expanded state-of-the-artcardiovascular care facility that will meet the demands of delivering outstanding cardiovascular care to a growing and changing patient population.  

This new expansion will contain all life support services, including operating rooms, interventional suites and a Cardiac Surgery intensive care unit, providing greater capacity and efficiencies and will support the advanced and rapidly changing technologies required to care for patients with the most complex medical needs.

In collaboration with hospitals and health systems, Philips aims to leverage advanced technology, coupled with deep clinical and consumer insights, to deliver solutions that improve people’s health and enable better outcomes across the health continuum.  The company’s work with the hospital is a perfect example of its solutions-based approach, providing innovative technology into many areas of the Heart Institute’s 145,000 square-foot tower.  

Seven of the ten labs will feature Philips newest technology in Canada – Azurion combined with intravascular ultrasound and clinical informatics – for performing a range of cardiac interventions. Azurion is a next generation image-guided therapy platform that features a state-of-the-art ergonomic design, with an easy-to-use touch screen intuitive user interface enabling clinicians to confidently perform a wide range of routine and complex procedures in the cardiac interventional labs and to provide superior care to patients.

Azurion also features an enhanced flat-panel detector, and Philips’ newly developed ConnectOS for the seamless integration of real-time information from all relevant technologies in the interventional lab. All of these components work together to deliver high image quality at ultra-low X-ray dose and real-time image processing on multiple work spots within the cardiac interventional suite. Parallel working enables the team of clinicians to complete different tasks simultaneously in the interventional lab, saving valuable time without compromising quality of care.

In addition to these image-guided therapy solutions, Philips has provided the UOHI’s new Cardiac Surgery intensive care unit with a new patient monitoring network consisting of 22 Philips IntelliVue MX800 and central surveillance stations. This gives healthcare providers a holistic view of their patients’ status, allowing them to make more informed decisions at the point of care.

“The University of Ottawa Heart Institute is thrilled that the time has finally come to introduce our next generation, state-of-the art expanded facility that will enable us to continue providing world-class cardiac care for patients and families of the Greater Ottawa Region and beyond,” said Dr. Thierry Mesana, president and CEO, The University of Ottawa Heart Institute.  “We strive to deliver high-tech care with a personal touch, shape the way cardiovascular medicine is practiced, and revolutionize cardiac treatment and understanding – and we could not do this without having access to the newest and most innovative health system technological solutions available.”  

“At Philips we look beyond technology and into the experiences of patients, providers, caregivers across the entire health continuum,” said Iain Burns, president & CEO, Philips Canada.  “Our work with The University of Ottawa Heart Institute is a fantastic example of how we aim to understand the needs of our customers, so that we can offer a flexible business partnership that promotes a smooth working relationship, so that the hospital can focus on what matters: advancing the health of patients in their community.”

As a leading innovator in cardiovascular care, Philips has focused on delivering integrated solutions comprising of interventional imaging systems, smart devices, software and services – that the company put together with its partners, like the UOHI, to solve a particular problem. In this way, Philips actively addresses the opportunities for healthcare providers to help improve patient outcomes and productivity.