Philips 2012 Annual Report Download - page 15

3 Our strategy in action 3 - 3
Annual Report 2012 15
Driving progressive health care
Through innovation in live image-guidance technology, Philips is enabling minimally
invasive procedures that were not possible before – opening up new ways to treat
disease and improve the quality of life for millions worldwide.
Many health conditions that once required open surgery
can be treated far less invasively today, minimizing physical
trauma to patients, allowing faster recovery and
improving outcomes. Helping drive this trend is the
application of X-rays, ultrasound and other imaging
technologies to guide interventional procedures, which
use specialized devices to diagnose and treat patients at
the site of disease and trauma. From repairing fractures
of the spine to treating blood vessels around the heart,
clinicians need live image guidance when performing a
minimally invasive intervention in order to ‘see’ real-
time on a monitor where they are and what they are doing
in the patient’s body.
Enabling safer, more effective procedures
Minimally invasive medicine is the future of progressive
health care, and at Philips we are leading the way in live
image-guidance technology, delivering relevant clinical
value where it is needed most. For example, by integrating
multi-modality images at the point of treatment, our
solutions offer exceptional image clarity and deep insight
– opening the door to new clinical procedures for safer,
more effective diagnosis and treatment in a number of
specialties.
These solutions include our new EchoNavigator¹, which
leverages our leadership in interventional X-ray and
echocardiography technology. The combination of these
two live modalities in a unique and intuitive way enables
a more efficient and straightforward method for treating
structural heart disease, a condition that affects millions
of people around the world.