Austin, Texas - At the recent Society for Computer Applications in Radiology's (SCAR) annual meeting, Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) announced that it has entered a strategic partnership with EDDA Technology to provide advanced digital radiography solutions to assist in the detection of lung lesions. Philips has licensed EDDA Technology's IQQA-Chest, which is designed to help clinicians identify, quantify, evaluate and report pulmonary nodules. The innovative software will be available as part of the Philips digital radiography portfolio, providing an integrated hardware and software solution.

By bridging the gap between the clinician's interpretation based upon patient-specific knowledge and computer analysis of the information captured by the X-ray, IQQA-Chest helps clinicians increase their performance while improving the efficiency for the analysis of each image. In clinical environments, the solution has been shown to increase the discovery rates of small nodules up to over 85 percent in comparison to detection without IQQA assistance, which varies between 35 and 65 percent. The first real-time interactive diagnostic analysis system, IQQA-Chest integrates advanced computer analysis technology into the clinicians' diagnostic process.

"Early diagnosis of diseases such as lung cancer can dramatically improve the clinical outcome for patients," commented Dr. Peter Reimer, global marketing director General X-Ray, for Philips Medical Systems. "Through our partnership with EDDA Technology we're providing clinicians with a new set of tools to aid in their detection of lung lesions at an early stage. IQQA-Chest complements our extensive radiography product portfolio and will ultimately lead to greater diagnostic confidence, resulting in better quality of care for patients."
"Our partnership with Philips reflects the increasingly important role that advanced computer assistance plays in the diagnosis of potentially life-threatening diseases," said Dr. Jian-Zhong Qian, president and CEO of EDDA Technology. "By combining IQQA-Chest with the broad Philips digital radiography portfolio clinicians can benefit from a powerful diagnostic solution across a wide range of equipment types. We are pleased about the strategic alliance with Philips and look forward to working closely together in future developments of our innovative solution."

IQQA-Chest will be available in combination with the entire Philips digital radiography portfolio, including DigitalDiagnost, the company's state-of-the art solution for direct digital radiography. The product will initially be available in the United States and China where the product has received regulatory clearance, and will become available in additional countries from 2007.

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