OREANDA-NEWS. November 26, 2012. GE Healthcare (NYSE: GE) today announced the commercial availability of its SensorySuite for mammography at RSNA 2012. Designed to divert a woman’s attention away from the discomfort, anxiety and intimidation associated with mammography screenings, the SensorySuite helps improve patients experience by providing a customized environment involving sight, smell and hearing during a mammography examination.

“Compliance rates for yearly mammograms have long been an issue. In fact, one in every four women avoid mammograms because of worry and fear[1], and less than 70% of women in the U.S. 40 and older have had a mammogram in the last two years[2],” said Prahlad Singh, General Manager, Women’s Healthcare, GE Healthcare. “With the SensorySuite, GE aims to reduce perceived patient anxiety by giving them control over their mammography experience. This improved experience is another testimonial of GE’s commitment to fight breast cancer by encouraging early detection."

SensorySuite for mammography was developed based on several studies showing why women avoid yearly mammograms as well as insights from the GE: For Women by Women project that invited designers, patients, students and thought leaders to brainstorm new and inventive approaches to mammography. The SensorySuite provides an all-encompassing experience for women undergoing mammograms and also offers a differentiating mammography experience for healthcare facilities, helping them to provide higher levels of patient satisfaction.

The SensorySuite process begins in the patient’s home, where an interactive online presentation posted in the facility’s web site presents the SensorySuite experience to the woman. The patient next explores the SensorySuite in the hospital waiting room via a tablet PC and scented bookmark bracelets related to the seaside, garden or waterfall environments. Finally, in the exam suite, the patient uses the in-room tablet PC to choose the ambiance she wants to be transported to. The patient enjoys the decorative wall panels depicting the available ambiances, a slide show of the chosen ambiance on a flat-screen monitor, a soothing video displayed on a second flat screen monitor emitting ambient sounds of the selected environment and a light, calming fragrance throughout the room via a scent diffuser.

The SensorySuite is installed and maintained by GE field engineers, and accompanying consumables can be purchased through GE sales representatives. The SensorySuite can be installed in a customer’s current facility equipped with GE systems or can be purchased with new GE mammography equipment.

“Healthcare is very personal. This is certainly true in Mammography. SensorySuite is a great example of the intersection of technology and the human side of healthcare. We are confident that women around the world who experience SensorySuite will see that GE not only strives to develop great technology, but that we also aim to develop solutions that approach every element of the care continuum with empathy, feeling and respect. Our hope is that through this solution we are taking some of the anxiety out of a traditional mammogram, and enabling women everywhere to take more control of their exam process,” said Hooman Hakami, president and CEO, Detection & Guidance Solutions (DGS), GE Healthcare.

* Trademark of General Electric Company.