Andover, Massachusetts, December 21, 2005 -- Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG; AEX: PHI), a worldwide leader in defibrillation technology, today announced that its entire line of HeartStart Defibrillators will meet the newly updated American Heart Association Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and Emergency Cardiovascular Care (ECC). The European Resuscitation Council (ERC) has also released its Guidelines for Resuscitation 2005 and Philips will meet those as well.

Defibrillators treat the most common cause of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), an electrical malfunction of the heart that causes it to beat erratically rather than pump in a normal rhythm. SCA is one of the leading causes of death in the United States, claiming more than 340,000 lives each year or nearly 1,000 people each day. Approximately 95 percent of these deaths occur before victims can get to a hospital or emergency room.

Philips HeartStart defibrillators were developed with the insight that the science behind resuscitation is constantly evolving. Virtually all HeartStart defibrillators currently available, including the Home, OnSite, FRx, FR2+, ForeRunner, and MRx, can be reconfigured now to support the new one-shock defibrillation protocol recommended in the 2005 Guidelines. Clinical studies have shown that the technology in HeartStart Defibrillators has a greater than 95 percent first-shock efficacy. For devices with CPR coaching and feedback capabilities, a software update will be available in 2006 to address the Guidelines' new CPR protocols.
In the meantime, the AHA states that these new recommendations do not mean the use of previous guidelines is either unsafe or ineffective, including the use of defibrillators that were designed to conform to those earlier guidelines. Philips HeartStart Defibrillators provide medical directors with the flexibility to change their defibrillation and CPR protocols on their own schedule, as they consider how best to implement the 2005 Guidelines to meet the needs of their particular program.

Since the AHA last updated the Guidelines in 2000, numerous research studies have shown that effective CPR is a critically important element in helping save the lives of cardiac arrest victims. These studies were emphasized in the development of the new guidelines. Responding to the same science, Philips recently introduced a range of resuscitation technology solutions designed to ensure that quality CPR and early defibrillation are delivered quickly and effectively. Philips commitment to continually help improve survival from sudden cardiac arrest is evidenced through the introduction of innovative technologies such as:

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