Royal Philips is a technology company focused on improving people’s lives through meaningful innovation in the areas of Healthcare, Consumer Lifestyle and Lighting. Philips’ headquarters are located in the Netherlands, and Philips started operations in Finland already in 1924. Today, Philips employs some 250 people in Finland, which includes MR Therapy unit as a part of the global Magnetic Resonance and Oncology businesses. The Finnish Center of Excellence develops better methods for the therapy of cancer.

Philips’ team in Finland has 20+ years of experience from developing magnetic resonance based solutions for accurate positioning of ultrasound and radiation therapy. In ultrasound therapy, tissue is warmed while measuring and controlling the temperature distribution in real time, which helps avoid invasive surgery. In radiation therapy, MRI gives more accurate information for the planning of radiation therapy, which can improve clinical outcomes. MRI based technologies enable more accurate aiming of the therapies, both in planning and delivery phases, which is greatly beneficial for treating the cancer patient.

Innokas Medical has been Philips’ partner in product development of MRI related to radiotherapy. Traditionally, the planning of radiation therapy has been done with CT-scanning, but the CT image is often not sufficient for visualizing the cancer tissue and the soft tissue, while for this purpose MRI works very well. Oncology clinics are hence gradually starting to favor information from MR images over conventional CT imaging. Director of Philips MR Therapy in Vantaa, Jarmo Ruohonen, says that Philips started partnering with Innokas in this development due to Innokas knowhow and solid experience from medical devices.

“Innokas has experienced designers, who have participated in wide variety of medical system design projects. Through this co-operation we can gain new perspectives and new experiences to our organization – the co-operation with Innokas brings us new knowhow that we might not have in-house. I also believe that Innokas learns from us and about us, which might speed up our design projects in cases where our own resources may not be sufficient. We are especially happy about Innokas expertise in mechanical design, radiation physics and reliability testing”, says Ruohonen.

According to Ruohonen the co-operation between Innokas and Philips has worked well. He values especially Innokas flexible services and professional personnel.

“We are very satisfied with the co-operation with Innokas. Innokas is a reliable Finnish partner. We can flexibly agree on details related to the project, and the designers have been professional”, concludes Ruohonen.