Philips CMO Q&A on Disney partnership
Philips has partnered with Disney to bring familiar characters like Mickey Mouse and Star Wars figures into MRI rooms, aiming to reduce anxiety for children undergoing scans. The collaboration integrates the entertainment giant’s stories into the company’s existing Ambient Experience for MRI, which already uses lighting and animations to calm patients. Dr. Atul Gupta, the firm’s chief medical officer of diagnosis and treatment, discussed the announcement with a health technology publication.
Clinical data shows two out of three kids experience anxiety during an MRI, Gupta said. The company has been working on ambient solutions for two decades. Now, the characters have been re-engineered to fit inside that environment — designed to avoid sudden movements or bright flashes that could ruin image quality.
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How the characters are designed for the scanner
The experience is not a movie. Patients pick one of 21 environments before entering the MRI. With these themes, characters appear on a screen and are synchronized with ambient lighting and sounds in the room. The animations follow strict rules: no quick cuts, no startling effects, and the character must stay centered to prevent rapid eye movements that create artifacts in brain or orbital scans.
The studio reworked its characters — including Winnie the Pooh, Marvel heroes, and Mickey Mouse — to match those clinical requirements. The goal is to lower heart rate and breathing by reducing overstimulation. He described it as “wrapping the child in a comforting environment.”
Published study shows reduced anxiety and scan interruptions
A randomized controlled study published in Pediatric Radiology tested the themed ambient experience across six hospitals in Europe. It involved 175 patients, evenly split by gender. Half underwent MRI in a standard room, the other half in an MRI from the firm with the characters and ambient effects.
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Pediatric stress levels dropped 43% for children under age 10. Scan interruptions — moments when the machine must be stopped and a sequence repeated — fell 63%. Those interruptions have operational costs and can mean a child has to come back for another scan, which becomes harder if they were scared the first time.
The study used validated measures like the Yale Preoperative Anxiety Scale, and he noted the data is now public. Independent replication would strengthen confidence, but the initial numbers are strong.
Rollout to 87 countries at no extra cost
The themes will be available through a software update for existing MRI systems from the company equipped with Ambient Experience. The rollout covers 87 countries. Early adopters include Rady Children’s Health in Orange County, California, and Calderdale Royal Hospital in the UK, part of the NHS.
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Gupta said the update comes at no added cost to hospitals. The gradual rollout aims to get the technology in front of as many children as quickly as possible. “It’s not only about technology,” he said. “We wanted to make sure it was validated.”
MRI scans are already noisy and claustrophobic for many adults. For children, the fear can be overwhelming. A familiar face on the screen might make the difference between a smooth scan and a traumatic experience that requires repeat visits.
