Overview
- This week Philips and The Walt Disney Company began staged rollouts of the Disney-themed Ambient Experience for MRI with initial activations reported in the United States and the United Kingdom.
- Calderdale Royal Hospital is named as the first NHS site to adopt the immersive scanners and Rady Children’s Health in Orange County is reported as the first U.S. hospital to use the system.
- Early multi-center results reported by the partners from six European hospitals show a 43% drop in measured stress among 6–10 year-olds and a 63% fall in scan pauses compared with standard MRI rooms.
- The setup uses lighting, sound, guided storytelling and specially produced Disney visuals inside Philips’ Ambient Experience to help children stay calm and still during scans, which can reduce the need for sedation and speed imaging throughput.
- Disney has provided themed art and training support as part of its pediatric initiatives and the companies plan to make the content available on eligible Philips systems in 87 countries, though the partner-reported study details and generalizability are not fully specified.