Sony and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital form partnership to drive innovation in children’s healthcare

Published: 25-Nov-2015

Collaboration will see Sony provide access to the latest healthcare innovations while Alder Hey gives insight and feedback from clinicians and patients

Sony Healthcare Solutions and Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust have announced a formal partnership to research and develop innovative medical care solutions.

Both Sony and Alder Hey believe there are endless possibilities for using advanced digital technologies in hospitals to significantly improve patient care and the patient experience.

Collaboration is at the heart of this innovative public-private partnership, with both parties making unique contributions. Sony will provide access to the latest innovations from across its healthcare solutions portfolio, while Alder Hey will provide valuable insight and feedback from paediatric medicine professionals, children and young people at the hospital.

As part of the project, Sony will establish a full-time staff presence at Alder Hey, working alongside the hospital’s dedicated innovation team and using technology to solve real-life clinical challenges, evaluating the positive impact on patient care.

Our ongoing work with Sony is really stimulating for everyone involved and our co-location within a busy hospital means we can constantly gain input from our key customers, the children and young people

The findings will be published to set an example for hospitals worldwide on the beneficial use of technology in patient care, as well as to inspire further advances in the future.

The innovation partnership was established after Sony supplied equipment for the operating theatres at Alder Hey’s brand new state-of-the art hospital, including the latest procedural and educational technologies. This includes conferencing capabilities inside the operating theatres for connecting with the best experts around the world during complicated procedures, as well as the ability to record surgeries for future training purposes.

During this commercial partnership it became clear there was great scope to work in a research partnership to apply the use of existing and novel technologies in the hospital environment. So far, the partnership has enabled Alder Hey to be the first hospital in the world to truly explore the possibilities for patient distraction in its day surgery unit, leading to the installation of a large-scale, interactive digital aquarium. Provided by Sony PCL, the bespoke solution is currently being assessed by the hospital as a method for reducing stress in patients prior to their procedures.

We have created an innovative hospital and it is fitting that within that we have made space for a research and innovation hub where our scientists and clinicians can freely collaborate with external experts and companies to incubate new ideas, develop and test them and then share the results

Iain Hennessey, consultant paediatric surgeon and clinical lead for innovation at Alder Hey, said: “At Alder Hey we are open to exploring new ideas and technologies to improve the care of our patients. We have created an innovative hospital and it is fitting that within that we have made space for a research and innovation hub where our scientists and clinicians can freely collaborate with external experts and companies to incubate new ideas, develop and test them and then share the results.

“Our ongoing work with Sony is really stimulating for everyone involved, and our co-location within a busy hospital means we can constantly gain input from our key customers, the children and young people.”

“The Alder Hey project is a great example of the wider capabilities of the Sony Healthcare business, showcasing how we can support hospitals and other medical facilities with their entire technology workflow. This doesn’t just mean providing individual products for the operating theatres, but instead acting as an adviser with decades of experience in developing technologies for highly-specific professional environments,” added Ludger Philippsen, business head at of Sony Healthcare Solutions in Europe.

“We’re very proud at Sony of what we’ve already achieved with Alder Hey in such a short period of time, and we look forward to even-more-fruitful collaboration in the future.”

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