Philips Azurion: Platte Valley Medical Center’s Experience

Platte Valley Medical Center, in Brighton, Colorado, was presented with an opportunity from Philips Healthcare to be one of the first facilities in the United States to have the new Azurion imaging system installed in our cath lab. Of course, we accepted the offer to have the latest technology installed in our facility for our patients. We researched the system, liked what we found, and then hoped it would meet our expectations when we put the system into service.

This is a high-level overview of our experience with the new Azurion system.  There are simply too many add-ons and ways to use this system to go into great detail. I went into this review without bias and with an open mind, and tried to imagine how the system would be used by different labs with different situations than our own.

Background

Platte Valley Medical Center was involved in the buildout of a new room for the cath lab.  The cath lab team performs coronary procedures including interventions, pacemakers, and implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) insertions, electrophysiology procedures, interventional radiology procedures, and peripheral vascular procedures. The room needed to be capable, flexible, and reliable to be used in a swing lab.  

Philips worked with us every step of the way through planning, construction, training, and go-live phases. Philips was an outstanding partner and helped the team overcome any issues that were encountered during each phase. It was already understood that this would be a show site for the Azurion system and that site visits to Platte Valley would be taking place. With that in mind, Philips was still very good at helping us to create the lab we wanted and needed, and not the lab they wanted to show. This was important to us, because a few of the design factors in our lab are a little unconventional.

The Azurion

We were excited to get the system up and running after hearing and reading about how it was developed and what it may be able to do during procedures. With all of the high expectations floating around, I was a little nervous that maybe it might not be able to hit such an elevated bar. I was very happy to be wrong.

The controls and the basic functions of the system are very intuitive and make learning the system extremely easy. Philips has improved upon what was already a very logical platform and removed some of the steps that were previously involved in running certain applications, making the flow smoother and faster. This, along with the FlexVision Pro tableside control, allows staff and physicians to change up what information they are seeing seamlessly on the fly.  We are able to immediately get the physician the information and images they need on the big screen simply by touching a button or dragging an icon into position on the touch screen.

The intra-procedure workflow is immediately noticed by most cath lab staff, but with the Azurion, many users will find that what they notice before and after the procedure is most interesting. Our staff was very interested to compare radiation doses between our existing system (from another vendor) and the new system. The staff and physicians noticed an almost 70% reduction in dose between the two rooms. This has become a huge issue, as of late, for all cath lab and interventional radiology professionals, and has definitely been addressed by Philips with the ClarityIQ and Zero Dose Positioning applications.

Philips has addressed workflow issues in the lab by adding applications that will allow teams to create procedure cards and hospital checklists to the system, such as the “timeout”, for use by staff. This helps staff to train new team members, allows for easier room turnover, and ensures that the little things will be consistently remembered. This is very important for those cases that are not performed as often, or for those staff members or physicians that do not visit the lab as frequently.

The images produced by the system are amazingly sharp and clear, even at the lower frame rates and with the lowered dose. The physicians and staff have been extremely impressed with the overall imaging and performance of the system, along with the service and the attention that they have received from Philips. The team at Philips has been outstanding at listening to any ideas that we may have on the system and what may be added in the future to improve other areas.

I received feedback from individuals that were involved with the Azurion development and that had used the system prior to our install, and it all sounded very much like my review. I feel like Philips listened to their customers and created a system that is safer, more intuitive, more flexible, and better suited to the overall needs of todays’ cath labs than any other system I have seen prior. I would definitely recommend that any organization or facility looking for a new imaging system give Azurion a look before making a final decision. 

Mark Baker can be contacted at Mark.Baker@sclhs.net

Author’s note: The statements made in this article reflect an honest and unbiased opinion based on the experience of myself, my staff, and the physicians, and should in no way be considered an endorsement of any product in any way by any organization or employer. This article is in no way reflective of any points of view of my employer or organization.