Royal Philips has signed a $65 million long-term strategic agreement with Phoenix Children's Hospital, one of the largest children's hospitals in the U.S.

"The doctors and researchers at Phoenix Children’s Hospital often create solutions on site that can address the specific needs of these young patients," Brent Shafer, CEO of Philips North America, told HCB News. "We look forward to working further with Phoenix Children’s to create solutions that can scale and improve global pediatric care."

These on-site solutions include life-size models of patients' hearts and other organs that can be used to plan surgeries via the pediatric care provider's advanced 3-D printing lab.

As part of the new 15-year deal, Phoenix Children's will have access to Philips' advanced CT, MR and angiography systems as well as patient monitors, clinical informatics technologies and clinical and business consulting services.

The organizations have worked together in the past to develop technologies such as iterative CT reconstructions for dose reduction and pediatric MR protocols that are now international factory standards. Going forward, they will be working on incorporating machine learning into patient monitoring and informatics technologies.

According to David Higginson, chief administrative officer at Phoenix Children's, the health system sought a partner that understands treating children is more complex and that they shouldn't be regarded as "little adults."

"There are challenges unique to children's hospitals, most evident is the fact that adult technologies shouldn’t be applied in children’s care," said Shafer. "Because a child's size and growth rate are so different from an adult, it poses unique challenges from an imaging perspective, helping to ensure low dose options are available, especially for children who are routinely scanned, or even applications that track their growth and measure tumors."

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