Frimley, UK, 2015-Oct-07
Sarah Browne, Play Specialist at John Radcliffe Children’s Hospital is using the MRI Scan App from Siemens Healthcare during MRI play preparation with her young patients.
“Play preparation is a great method of familiarising a child with a procedure and gives the opportunity to eliminate any misconceptions in a format that is age appropriate,” states Sarah Browne, Health Play Specialist at Oxford’s Children’s Hospital. “The process can help the child face, express or cope with fear or anxiety, putting them at greater ease during an MRI scan and other procedures. If a child is unable to complete a scan awake, waiting times and results will be delayed and anaesthetics will potentially be needed. This has a knock-on effect on the length of their stay, meaning greater hospital resources are required to accommodate them.”
Oxford’s Children’s Hospital has been using a tablet device hosting the MRI Scan App from Siemens since its launch in the summer. It is used alongside a number of other resources such as a Siemens MRI model scanner and figures, preparation books, a play tunnel, ear plugs and music. The tools are used in conjunction with each other in order to help children understand the process of an MRI scan in more depth and reduce the amount of anxiety, increasing the chance of a successful awake scan.
Sarah Browne continues, “The MRI Scan App from Siemens Healthcare brings a new element of interactivity to scan preparation; the features provide a realistic experience that gives the child control. It also provides answers to common questions and the games are very appealing to a young audience. Most children already know how to use a tablet device so the technology is a natural extension of activities from at home or school. Ideally we would like to take all children to see the scanner before an examination but this is not always possible. The app provides a 360-degree view which gives the best possible experience of a scan prior to their own.”
The MRI Scan App includes friendly characters and interactive features in an understandable format for children. The 360-degree virtual MRI scan means children can lie down or lean back and move their tablets around to virtually experience an MRI scan. It also provides realistic sound comparisons, comparing the sound of an MRI scan to other real-life noises, including wind, traffic, a vacuum cleaner and a dog barking.
The Siemens MRI Scan app is available to download free of charge for tablet devices from both iTunes and Google Play.
Siemens Healthcare is one of the world's largest suppliers to the healthcare industry and a trendsetter in medical imaging, laboratory diagnostics, medical information technology and hearing aids. Siemens offers its customers products and solutions for the entire range of patient care from a single source – from prevention and early detection to diagnosis, and on to treatment and aftercare. By optimising clinical workflows for the most common diseases, Siemens also makes healthcare faster, better and more cost-effective. Siemens Healthcare employs some 52,000 employees worldwide and operates around the world www.siemens.co.uk/healthcare.
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About Siemens
Siemens AG (Berlin and Munich) is a global technology powerhouse that has stood for engineering excellence, innovation, quality, reliability and internationality for more than 165 years. The company is active in more than 200 countries, focusing on the areas of electrification, automation and digitalization. One of the world’s largest producers of energy-efficient, resource-saving technologies, Siemens is No. 1 in offshore wind turbine construction, a leading supplier of combined cycle turbines for power generation, a major provider of power transmission solutions and a pioneer in infrastructure solutions as well as automation, drive and software solutions for industry. The company is also a leading provider of medical imaging equipment – such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging systems – and a leader in laboratory diagnostics as well as clinical IT. In fiscal 2014, which ended on September 30, 2014, Siemens generated revenue from continuing operations of €71.9 billion and net income of €5.5 billion. At the end of September 2014, the company had around 357,000 employees worldwide. Further information is available on the Internet at www.siemens.com.
The Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust (OUH) is one of the largest acute teaching trusts in the UK, with a national and international reputation for the excellence of its services and its role in patient care, teaching and research. The Trust supports world-leading research programmes in cardiovascular diseases, musculoskeletal disorders, neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s through its designation as one of the UK’s five comprehensive biomedical centres and units. It works in close partnership with the University of Oxford and is a leading centre for cancer, neurosciences, diabetes, genetics and many other fields. ‘research themes of particular strength are: cancer, cardiovascular science, diabetes, endocrinology & metabolism, infection and immunology, musculoskeletal science, neuroscience and reproduction and development. The Trust has been designated as a major trauma centre and is one of four UK centres for craniofacial surgery and The Trust employs 11,000 staff and consists of four hospitals: the Churchill Hospital, John Radcliffe Hospital and Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Oxford and the Horton General Hospital in Banbury. www.ouh.nhs.uk
