Philips Medical Systems NetForum Community website for MRI has proved so successful that the Company has now extended it to encompass CT users as well.
Ever-increasing workload and time constraints often make it difficult to meet with colleagues face-to-face, or to be fully engaged in professional organisations. To address this problem, Philips has created an online user community where Philips users can share clinical insights with each other and build a world-class repository of powerful knowledge. Both users of CT and MR will find this a convenient resource to learn more themselves, as well as a place to share the results they've achieved with their Philips systems.
NetForum is free and available to anyone, but becoming a registered user gives added privileges. Any Philips CT user can register. Membership provides users with the opportunity to share users' CT expertise and to find out how colleagues in the global imaging community are using CT to gain new clinical insights.
MR users around the world have already embraced NetForum. As of September 2005, more than 2,000 users were registered, with an average of 200 more registering every month. At that time, other members had already reviewed 26,000 items on the site. Philips monitors these statistics to ensure that this forum is directly responding to user needs, and, in fact, leads to the creation of new resources.
CT NetForum hosts a library of useful information that can help improve a healthcare facility's clinical effectiveness. CT NetForum information is clinically focused. It includes Exam Cards, protocols, advanced product training, clinical case studies, application tips, presentations from distinguished researchers and much more.
ExamCards provide "recipes" that enable users to rapidly plan and perform clinical examinations with optimised results. They detail steps for patient preparation, injection protocols/planning, scanner acquisition parameters, post-processing approaches and provide comments and special instructions for the best clinical results.
Alistair Howseman, CT Business Line Manager at Philips Medical Systems UK says, "The value of this forum is plain to see. Peer recognition, an opportunity to highlight personal accomplishments and contributing to the advancement of clinical excellence in CT imaging are just some of the benefits realised by CT NetForum contributors. Quite simply, CT NetForum provides clinical information for users by users".
To obtain access to Philips NetForum simply log on to the Philips website www.netforum.medical.philips.com
About Royal Philips Electronics
Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) is a global leader in healthcare, lifestyle and technology, delivering products, services and solutions through the brand promise of "sense and simplicity." Headquartered in the Netherlands, Philips employs approximately 121,700 employees in more than 60 countries worldwide. With sales of USD 34 billion (EUR 27 billion) in 2006, the company is a market leader in medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring systems, energy efficient lighting solutions, personal care and home appliances, as well as consumer electronics. News from Philips is located at www.philips.com/newscenter.