GEHC expands its footprint to South America, opening its first manufacturing facility in Contagem, Brazil.
South America*, and Brazil in particular, is a region of increasing focus for GE. GE CEO Jeff Immelt recently announced that the location of the next Global Research Center (GRC) will be in Brazil, which is a testament to the importance of this region. Brazil is one of four focus countries in GE’s globalization process, which also includes Russia, India and China.
Brazil and South America are also of critical importance to GE Healthcare’s future. On Thursday, June 22 senior leaders and government officials gathered in Brazil, to inaugurate GE Healthcare’s first plant in South America. For the last several years GE Healthcare has envisioned and laid the groundwork to establish a manufacturing facility to serve both the local market of Brazil and eventually all of Latin America**. According to Claudia Goulart, president and CEO of GE Healthcare for Latin America, “This is a plant that already comes with the legacy of GE quality. Above all, it allows us to align ourselves with our commitment to Brazil, to the Latin America region and to the healthcare market in general.”
This plant, located in Contagem, Brazil, just outside of Belo Horizonte, is a $50 million investment over the next 10 years. It is expected to bring over 700 jobs to the region through new employees, additional indirect resources (i.e., suppliers), distributors and new service personnel. This is a great example of a project that is not only good for GE, but also one that supports the local region with new employment opportunities.
The Brazil plant was established with a focus around healthymagination. One of the products which will be manufactured there will be the DF-R x-ray system, a healthymagination certified product, which will increase access and reduce costs for the people of Brazil. In addition, the facility has manufacturing capabilities for mammography and remanufacturing of a number of diagnostic imaging products. In the future, the plant will expand manufacturing to include PET, CT, MRI and monitoring systems.
The Brazilian healthcare market is currently worth $600 million, and the entire Latin America region is worth $2 billion. Both markets are growing at a rate of 8% a year. Having a plant in this region is a turning point for GE Healthcare and will accelerate growth, while continuing to realize the ‘in country, for country’ business strategy.
The future is bright for GE and GE Healthcare in Brazil and South America. It is sure to be brighter with the opening of the new GE GRC facility in 2013. Having a research center co-located with other GE plants will help with future product development providing an increase in quality and access, while reducing costs … taking healthymagination to the people of South America, creating better health for more people.
* South America includes all the countries south of the Panama Canal
** Latin America includes all countries south of the United States
Commitment to Stroke Awareness Earns GE Healthcare an Award From The Stroke Association
At a gala event at Claridge’s Hotel in central London, The Stroke Association last week hosted its annual Life After Stroke Awards to recognize the achievements of stroke survivors, carers, volunteers, major donors, corporate supporters and health professionals from across the UK. GE Healthcare was presented with the Corporate Supporter Award for its “earnest commitment to the prevention and appropriate treatment of stroke.”
"When it came to deciding who would receive the Corporate Supporter Award, it was sort of a natural,” says Joe Korner, director of communications at The Stroke Association, a UK charity that is attacking the condition on all fronts by funding research, providing support to stroke patients and their families, and increasing knowledge of stroke at all levels of society. “GE Healthcare has been unquestionably supportive, in a way that's been really helpful to our campaign, and without any interference."
Spreading Knowledge to Save Lives
Stroke is the third-biggest killer(1) and the leading cause of severe disability in the UK.(2) Of all people who have a stroke, about one-third are likely to die within the first 10 days, about one-third are likely to make a recovery within one month and about one-third are likely to be left with disabilities and needing rehabilitation.(3)
“Despite its severe impact on society, stroke has not been an area that is really discussed,” says Gisela Abbam, head of government affairs at GE Healthcare. “But the chances of having a stroke can be reduced if people make healthy choices. Even more important, people need to know what to do when they or someone they are with has a stroke or a transient ischemic attack, a mini-stroke. ”
Stroke can be treated with high efficacy if diagnosed quickly. And that means getting a brain scan within three hours of the episode. The key is to understand what has happened in the brain, because different types of stroke call for completely different treatments. With ischemic stroke — a blockage of a blood vessel in the brain — initial treatment aims to reduce the blood’s ability to clot, and potentially dissolve the blockage itself. With hemmoragic stroke, in which a blood vessel ruptures, releasing blood into the brain cavity, initial treatment aims to promote blood clotting, to reduce bleeding. A computed tomography (CT) scan is employed to identify the location and type of stroke, providing the information necessary to begin treatment.
With transient ischemic attacks (TIAs), the blood vessel blockage is temporary, and the patient’s symptoms can subside in a relatively short period. However, if left untreated, there is a high likelihood that a full stroke will occur. In the case of a suspected TIA, a magnetic resonance (MR) scan can help physicians understand the impact of the event on brain tissue, and help them determine appropriate treatment.
In each of these scenarios, time is of the essence. Two things are required to ensure this level of responsiveness, Abbam says. The public needs to widely understand the signs of a stroke or TIA, in the same way there is a generally good awareness of the symptoms of heart attacks, and to call an ambulance immediately. And the health service needs to be prepared to route patients to specialized stroke units extremely quickly.
A Message That Struck a Chord
Towards the end of 2005, The Stroke Association launched its Stroke Is a Medical Emergency campaign to ensure stroke got the priority it deserved within the NHS, with the goal of shifting awareness and practice to enable quick diagnosis.
“At the time, it was a bit of a radical thing to do,” Korner says. “Our goal was not only to get the health service to change, but to generally raise awareness of stroke symptoms.”
The association came up with an acronym — FAST — which was originally devised to make it easy for paramedics to recognise the signs so they could take patients directly to the stroke unit at the hospital. But the value of extending this knowledge to the general public was soon recognized.
By 2007, the campaign had struck a chord across the country, and demand for literature had depleted The Stroke Association’s campaign budget. It was at this time that Abbam and Korner first met, at The Stroke Association’s annual UK Stroke Forum, a conference drawing physicians, stroke specialist nurses and other healthcare professionals. The introduction led to some immediate funding by GE Healthcare to keep the campaign afloat, and was the start of a collaboration that has expanded year over year.
Bettina Fitt, UK general manager at GE Healthcare, has been a strong advocate of this partnership. “The nature of our business at GE Healthcare brings us into contact with a wide array of diseases and public health issues, but with The Stroke Association we saw that our involvement could really be a catalyst for change.”
Making a Valuable Contribution
So far, GE Healthcare has contributed approximately £150,000 of direct funding to The Stroke Association as a sponsor of the UK Stroke Forum and of the FAST campaign. The company also has organized round-table events, media briefings and other forums for discussion about the latest thinking on treating stroke, which have led to additional opportunities for The Stroke Association.
Korner gives an example of the non-financial benefits: “I attended an event that GE Healthcare organized on the management of TIA, and that led to an invitation for me to address the European Stroke Conference, and that in turn led to other important contacts that have enabled us to push our efforts into Europe. So it is beneficial to bring people together in this space, and we wouldn't necessarily be able to organize these gatherings ourselves, without support.”
The benefits, however, are not purely unilateral. The Stroke Association is supporting GE's own employee health initiative, called Health Ahead, by visiting every GE facility in the UK to educate staff about stroke prevention and what it takes to have a healthy heart and mind.
Steady On
The FAST campaign continues apace. A recent television campaign on stroke awareness by the Department of Health led to another run on FAST leaflets from The Stroke Association, which has now distributed over half a million of them.
“Our work on treating stroke as a medical emergency is a work in progress,” Korner says. “Data shows there is much more to be done. That means making sure that everyone — all members of the public — can quickly recognize a stroke, and immediately dial 999. Second, we need to make sure that the whole organization of our health system is geared up to deal with stroke, getting people to hospital quickly and to the scanner quickly. We know, and the evidence is clear, that this speeds up recovery and can make the difference between life and death.”
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(1) Wolfe, C ‘The Burden of Stroke’ in Wolfe C., Rudd, T. and Beech, R. (eds) Stroke Services and Research (1996), The Stroke Association.
(2) ‘Is Stroke the Most Common Cause of Disability’ Joy Adamson, Andy Beswick, Shah Ebrahim
(3) Bosanquet, N. and Franks, P., Stroke Care: Reducing the burden of the disease, 1998, The Stroke Association.
Ecomagination: Reducing the Environmental Impact of Healthcare
Imagine a world where companies consider the environmental impact of every product they produce, in both design and manufacturing. Led by its ecomagination initiative, GE is doing exactly that. Ecomagination is a business initiative to help meet customers’ demand for more energy-efficient products while driving reliable growth for GE.
Today GE releases its 2009 ecomagination annual report, which describes the progress the company has made against its enviromental goals, with stories illustrating how GE ecomagination products and services are being used around the world.
As shown in this video, the healthcare division of GE is no exception. There are myriad examples of GE Healthcare creating equipment and workflows that reduce energy and materials consumption, with significant longterm benefits for healthcare facilities, communities and the planet. For example:
• 'Green' hospitals. With the right design and environmental consciousness, hospitals can reach their full potential as places best suited to healing. A 'green' hospital is one that will not only strive to reduce energy costs, greenhouse gas emissions and waste, it is a place where patients—responding to improved air, natural elements and streamlined staff responses—can be happier, healthier and recover faster. A conservation-minded hospital is capable of making a real impact when replicated worldwide. A 200-bed hospital that reduces its energy consumption by 17.5% reduces greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking 330 cars per year off US roads. Beyond these emissions reductions are a host of other benefits: significant water savings, avoidance of harmful chemicals and reduced paper use.
• High-efficiency MR scanners. The Signa HDe was the first healthcare product to join ecomagination’s product portfolio and is now part of GE Healthcare’s family of high-efficiency MR scanners. Compared with previous generation systems, these scanners can, under normal operating conditions, reduce power consumption by a third, saving 60,000 kWh of electricity per year—equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of about 13 urban Chinese households.
• Digital X-ray machines. GE Healthcare has developed a family of digital X-ray machines that, compared with traditional film-based X-ray equipment, can reduce the consumption of resources such as energy, water, film and chemicals, increase productivity and lower operating costs. GE’s newest digital X-ray offering is the Brivo DR- F.
The news of GE Healthcare’s formation of a discrete business unit for healthcare IT, named Performance Solutions, underscores the growing pressure for operational efficiency in the field. In the US, addressing costs is at the center of the healthcare debate with even bigger issues looming around the corner.
The inefficiencies inherent in healthcare will worsen the cost equation, and the tremendous variance across healthcare organizations has potential to plague the improvements that have been made in cost, quality and access over the last decade.
“Advancing the system doesn’t require a reinvention of the wheel,” said John Dineen, president and CEO of GE Healthcare. It requires us to partner together and help each other connect the dots, identify best practices, insights and findings that will allow our healthcare providers to deliver the best in quality care to our patients.”
Great tools already exist in healthcare IT, change management, asset optimization, patient safety, leadership and organizational excellence, but there is a significant opportunity to develop future technologies that address the variance challenge that plagues most healthcare systems globally.
Last week, GE hosted a daylong healthymagination thought leadership summit focused on hospital efficiency in New York City. The summit featured a wide range of speakers and panel discussions covering everything from the role informatics plays in driving efficiencies to how can an organization foster cultural shifts within the hospital in order to deliver better quality care for the patient.
As Mark Chassin, president, The Joint Commission stated during his keynote presentation, “this is a global challenge. The Joint Commission now accredits about 350 hospitals in 41 countries and I can tell you that every developed healthcare system is facing exactly the same challenges.”
GE is dedicated to making an impact in the hospital efficiency space. In support of healthymagination, GE’s $6 billion commitment to provide better health for more people around the world, GE Healthcare announced a new business unit, called GE Healthcare Performance Solutions.
This new GE Healthcare business will link parts of the Healthcare IT business such as GE’s clinical knowledge base with the current Performance Solutions platform, which consists of innovative operational improvement informational technology and change management capabilities. It was announced that GE Healthcare is investing an additional $25 million of annual R&D spend as well as adding more than 100 new employees over the next year to help develop these new clinical solutions and help customers achieve their goals.
Working with hospitals across the United States, the legacy Performance Solutions business helped take out approximately $91 million dollars in unnecessary cost by helping hospitals simplify processes, open up additional capacity to treat people using the current infrastructure, and ensure the right tools are on hand to address patient needs.
Collaborating with hospitals and researchers on the cutting edge of healthcare technology is a critical component of GE’s Healthymagination strategy as well as GE Healthcare’s business strategy.
Dr. Desiree Butter has always had an interest in technology and its ability to provide easy access to patient information. But it wasn’t until she opened her own practice in 2004 that she was able to make the best use of electronic medical record (EMR) technology.
“If you're low-budget like I am, it makes a big difference,” she says. “I don't have to have a chart room. And it really cuts down on staff hours — everything doesn't have to be filed, or pass through the hands of a staff member. A lot of things I can just access myself.”
A sole practitioner, Dr Butter runs Colonnades Family Medicine, serving approximately 1,600 patients in Wexford, Pennsylvania, and it has been a fully digital operation since the beginning. Dr Butter carries a tablet PC wherever she goes, which gives her full access to a patient’s chart, prescriptions and billing history at a moment’s notice; invaluable when she receives patient phone calls outside the office.
Introducing Centricity Advance
Colonnades Family Medicine is running on Centricity Advance, a web-based EMR solution launched today by GE Healthcare and specifically designed for the smaller physician practice.
Unlike most clinical and financial management solutions, Centricity Advance is a web-based service that costs less than a standard client-server software deployment and is maintained and supported with little or no strain on the healthcare provider’s resources, freeing up more time for patient care.
Ideal as a Web-Based Service
The fact that Centricity Advance was designed from the ground up as a web service is significant. Instead of simply providing web-based gateway into a standard EMR application, the Centricity Advance is created with anywhere/anytime access in mind, resulting in an intuitive and efficient interface without sacrificing functionality. Since system management is centralized as part of the Centricity Advance service, small practices don’t have to worry about data protection, updates, equipment failures and other typically stressful responsibilities of user-driven IT management.
Another key feature of Centricity Advance is the Patient Self-Service Portal, which connects patients to their care. By using their own secure password to log in, patients can communicate privately with their doctor and view their own information such as statements, prescriptions and lab results. Patients can also request and confirm appointments, request prescription refills and get automatic reminders for immunizations and lab tests.
“They are going to love it!” she says. “The majority likes to have lab results — actual copies. I like them to have their numbers too. The more my practice develops, the better the product gets. It is probably ahead of me in terms of growth and functionality.”
PET/CT Emerging as Valuable Tool for Planning and Monitoring Cancer Treatment
Approximately 95 percent of PET/CT procedures are oncology-based. And although PET is most commonly used for diagnosing and staging cancer, there has been a recent surge of investigation into how it can positively influence the treatment of patients — specifically for planning and monitoring.
This week at the Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM) conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, GE Healthcare is talking a lot about innovations that can improve the patient experience (see links to press releases below). In the area of molecular imaging, PET/CT is proving to have untapped potential to inform doctors and their patients during the course of treatment. By using PET/CT early in the process, clinicians can understand whether a treatment is being effective, and adapt accordingly.*
Knowing early in the cycle that the treatment being given is effective can provide peace of mind. It’s just as important to know if the treatment is not effective, so that a different course of treatment can be offered to patients without having to go through an entire 12-week regimen before making a change or continuing with radiation that may not be making a difference.
“This allows us to make a better determination [about] the next step in chemotherapy,” says Dr. Simeon Jaggernauth, Medical Oncologist, Cancer Treatment Centers of America at Southwestern Regional Medical Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “That is, should we continue at the same dose? Should we raise the dose? Should we lower the dose, or should we stop treatment? By knowing how the activity changes over time, this quantitative and qualitative information then allows us to take better care of the patient.”
PET is different from the more traditional imaging systems, which simply identify anatomic location or tumor size. Instead, PET records molecular activity indicative of rapid tumor growth. PET and CT are often used together to collect both metabolic and anatomic information in order to provide a comprehensive look inside the body, allowing a comparison of the molecular activity within the tumor, as compared to normal tissue such as muscle.
Think of a CT image as a geographic map and the PET image as the weather system. The two images together, just like a weather map on the local news, provide both the location of the tumor in the body and the molecular activity in the tumor.
PET/CT pinpoints the location of a tumor in relation to normal structures so oncologists can individualize treatment plans and take full advantage of advanced therapies to improve outcomes. But they also present new challenges such as understanding tumor and organ motion – which GE Healthcare is addressing with tools that enable clinicians to plan in multiple modalities and manage tumor motion successfully.
Since changes in tumor function often precede changes in tumor size PET/CT systems can in some cases provide early indication of disease progression and treatment response. As a result, clinicians have vital information to guide more timely treatment decisions in order to optimize clinical effectiveness and better manage the costs of treatment.
A powerful tool in that regard is GE Healthcare’s PET VCAR (Volume Computer Assisted Reading), which gives clinicians both a visual and a quantitative look at disease progression and tumor response. Having immediate access to interactive reports on their patients’ progress, clinicians can manage workflow with greater confidence and efficiency.
About Discovery PET/CT
GE Healthcare introduced the first commercially available PET/CT scanner and continues to be a pioneer in the field of molecular imaging. GE Healthcare’s family of Discovery™ PET/CT systems provides a spectrum of capabilities, so doctors can select the technology best suited to their practice and to patients’ needs.
The Discovery PET/CT series provides outstanding image quality. With one of the highest-rated sensitivities in the industry, GE Healthcare scanners are designed to potentially improve cancer detection, enable faster scans, and reduce dose requirements.
Discovery PET/CT systems aid workflow efficiency and patient comfort with unique features like the 70cm wide bore that offers a full PET and CT field of view, a large patient table and a 2m horizontal scan range for full head to toe imaging. Combined, these efficiencies allow patients to finish exams in a timely manner, as images become available quickly for physicians to review.
Six out of ten PET/CT systems installed at the top cancer centers in the US are from GE Healthcare. What’s more, GE PET/CT systems have been rated the most reliable in the industry since 2006 by IMV ServiceTrak, a reflection of the robust technology and excellent service for which GE Healthcare is known. That level of reliability and predictability is critical in cancer care, where regularity of treatment helps to optimize outcomes, throughput and patient confidence.
* Hillner, BE et al “Relationship Between Cancer Type and Impact of PET and PET/CT on Intended Management: Findings of the National Oncologic PET Registry” J Nucl Med 2008; 49:1928–1935.
GE@SNM
Virtual event website offering resources and networking opportunities with event attendees, online participants and GE Healthcare leaders. Find out more »
GE Healthcare at the Society of Nuclear Medicine Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City
Focusing on helping clinicians improve experiences for their patients, GE Healthcare is highlighting an innovative portfolio of molecular imaging technologies and agents at the 57th annual meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM), June 5-9, in Salt Lake City. Terri Bresenham, vice president for molecular imaging at GE Healthcare, provides an overview of what's being announced.
“Our vision for GE Healthcare's molecular imaging business is to apply innovation to improve the patient experience,” she says. “We have shortened traditional exam times and reduced dose without compromising a clinician's or researcher’s ability to understand a disease from the beginning.”
Note: Visit GE Healthcare's virtual event website -- GE@SNM -- where Bresenham will be hosting a live online chat at 8:00 a.m. Mountain Time on Tuesday, June 8.
Design at GE Healthcare: The Magic of Science and Empathy
Leading-edge design is typically associated with things like fashion, automobiles, consumer electronics and architecture. But medical devices? You’d be surprised. Over the past several years GE Healthcare has been building a world-class, award-winning design team. The company’s main design hub is in Buc, near Paris, which is home to product designers, ergonomists and researchers.
For GE, the design process begins not from an engineering point of view, but by gaining a deep understanding of the people who will interact with the equipment.
“It’s all about empathy,” says Bob Schwartz, general manager for global design at GE Healthcare. “How do we reach the hearts and minds of patients? How do we make the experience better for technologists and clinicians? How do we help them deliver high-quality healthcare with greater access at a lower cost?”
Franҫois Lenfant, head of the European design studio at Buc, is passionate about the team’s contributions to GE Healthcare product development. Researchers and designers spend considerable time with real-world healthcare professionals. And this contact with end users often leads to new product concepts as well as ways to improve existing products.
“Of course we observe people, we interview people, but more importantly we want to understand their activity — how they work,” he says. “There is usually a big difference between what you do, and what you say you do, so we also are looking for unexpressed needs.”
A particularly colorful example is GE Healthcare’s development of a pediatric imaging solution that removes some of the distress children may feel while undergoing a scan. For the past several years, GE Healthcare has been working with child life specialists from leading children’s hospitals, the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum (Milwaukee, US), award-winning design firms and The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) to improve the patient, family and hospital staff experience.
The pilot program resulting from this collaboration is called the GE Adventure Series™ (not commercially available). This approach to pediatric imaging takes patients on an imaging journey from a “Child Life Theatre” designed to acclimate children to the appearance, sound and feel of medical imaging, to the radiography room and equipment, to the exit point where children are rewarded for their participation.
The medical device industry is getting well-deserved attention as a field where excellent design makes a real difference. And GE Healthcare is betting on it as one of the qualities that set its products apart.
From Silver to Gold: The Implications of an Aging Population in Japan
GE Japan and GE Healthcare Japan, in collaboration with The Economist Group, hosted "GE healthymagination Day 2010" in Tokyo, where over 500 of Japan's government, corporate and academic elite gathered to discuss the implications of Japan's aging population.
Japan is facing a significant demographic challenge of a rapidly aging population, coupled with a low birth rate. This means that Japan’s population, which began to decline in 2005, is now expected to decline from 127.5 million in 2009 to below 120 million by 2025, and to 90 million by 2055. The country’s 28 million elderly those aged over 65 — will account for more than one — third (33.7%) of the total population by 2035 and for one out of every 2.5 people by 2055.
The current Japanese healthcare infrastructure is not set up to provide care in the home to this population, however the Japanese government is keen to capitalize on this opportunity. They plan to turn this unprecedented demographic change into a source of economic growth.
During the course of the half-day event, key stakeholders from across Japan and GE discussed potential solutions for the graying population. In other words, together, how can we turn silver into gold?
Yoshiaki Fujimori, president and CEO of GE Japan, sees this demographic challenge as a significant opportunity for GE. “GE needs to take advantage of this challenge, working in partnership with the local government, to provide the technology, leadership and solutions that will help improve the quality of life for the increasing elderly population.”
Though Japan leads the world currently in healthy aged living, they are not alone in facing such a rapid demographic shift. South Korea, Singapore and China are also expected to face similar challenges. Japan has the potential to lead the way in developing systems, services and products catering to what will be an important consumer market.
GE is working with the Japanese government to address the current demographic challenge through the five focus areas of healthymagination.
• Advanced diagnostics: GE is working on new technologies and solutions that will help spot disease earlier and therefore lower the cost of chronic care. For example, GE is working on a new imaging agent with PET that will enable doctors to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease earlier and therefore provide the patient with a higher quality of life, for longer.
• More products at more price points: Through healthymagination, GE has invested $3 bln to develop new innovative products that address the specific needs of customers globally. V-scan, the new pocket-sized ultrasound device, is an example of GE’s commitment to bringing innovative solutions to the healthcare industry. This technology will allow doctors to diagnose a problem and get the patient the right treatment sooner, alleviating additional costs of care.
• Information technology: This multibillion-dollar global industry has tremendous potential. Better clinical data is essential to providing better-quality healthcare to more people at a lower cost. With the focus on providing tools for home care, GE can work with Japanese counterparts to develop technologies that enable access to clinical data at home or at the bedside.
• Performance Solutions: Japanese healthcare standards need to be streamlined. There is a significant amount of variation in the system as well as improper utilization of staff and assets. Through industrialized techniques such as Lean and Six Sigma, GE can work with the healthcare institutions to provide personalized solutions to improve the quality of care while reducing cost and waste.
• Home Health: With the shift in population toward living longer, healthier lives, there is a strong need to provide portable, wireless technologies that will enable the elderly the independence they deserve, along with the monitoring and disease management they need. Continual innovation in this space is essential for the growing elderly population in Japan as well as around the world.
Although the population in Japan is aging, this does not translate to unhealthy people. In fact, according to Professor Hiroko Akiyama from the Institute of Gerontology at the University of Tokyo, over the next two decades, 40 percent of elderly people in Japan will live on their own. The shift towards home-based care needs to address the social desire for the elderly to lead a higher-quality, active and fulfilling life.
“GE and the Japanese government are working together to provide the technologies and solutions necessary to ensure long-term viability for the healthcare system at home and in the hospital,” said Mike Barber, vice president, GE healthymagination. “We are focused on reducing overall costs while improving the quality of home-based care that are essential to improving the healthcare system.”
“There are two significant areas which Japan can lead in healthcare,” said Jeff Immelt, president and CEO of GE. “Japan is known for its technological innovation, so it seems fitting that the country can help pave the way for a positive future in healthcare IT and home health, specifically addressing the demographic challenge at hand.”
Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of Softbank, a Japanese telecommunications and media corporation, already has some ideas on how Japan can develop a universal healthcare information system. “With the help of the iPad, healthcare information can be leveraged as easily in surgery as it can at home. Increased access to clinical data at all levels of the healthcare system is essential in order to reduce variation and ensure quality care across the system.”
While members of the medical imaging informatics community are still packing their bags to go to SIIM 2010 in Minneapolis later this week, scores of RIS and PACS administrators, radiologists, radiology directors and informatics experts have already arrived to take part in GE Healthcare’s Centricity Imaging User Summit today and DIAMOND, Excite and CRISS user group meetings tomorrow.
“The summit is one of the best opportunities we have to share knowledge, product information and our vision for the future with our customers, who are constantly pushing to improve how medical images and related data are managed,” says Don Woodlock, senior vice president and global general manager for Imaging Solutions at GE Healthcare. “What is so important at this event is that we are listening at least as much as we are talking — our Centricity product managers are getting direct input from the people who work with our products every day.”
With economic pressure forcing all healthcare organizations to scrutinize their spending, GE Healthcare has kept up its strong connections with Centricity users by continuing to fund conferences, user groups and focus groups. And the value of these meetings is felt all around.
One attendee is KimBaldwin, a PACS Administrator at South Jersey Radiology Associates (SJRA), an outpatient imaging center chain with 10 locations and 44 subspecialized radiologists in southern New Jersey.
“There's always something new to do with PACS — security, improving productivity or workflow, HIPPA rules — and the user summit is a nice way for GE to distribute information to people,” she says. “Moreover, the networking is very beneficial, hearing what others are doing, especially innovators and early adopters.”
Baldwin’s first direct contact with GE Healthcare was when she joined a Centricity PACS-IW user group called DIAMOND (Dynamic Imaging Associated Members Organized for Networking and Discussion) in 2007, which she leads today as the group’s chair. DIAMOND’s purpose is to enable PACS administrators, information technology directors, and technologically-savvy physicians to share ideas, information and best practices with each other. Baldwin is currently serving a two-year term.
She has also led several focus groups for GE Healthcare. A recent focus group centered on GE Healthcare's service and support. A group of 10-12 customers participated in monthly calls, enabling Baldwin to capture users’ actual experiences and perceptions, and feed detailed information back to the company. "Running a focus group is about listening to people and trying to get them what they need, and GE really takes the feedback to heart and acts on it,” she says. “Over the past couple of months, people have been happier with the service."
Two years ago Baldwin spoke at the Centricity Imaging User Summit about SJRA’s roll-out of PACS to referring physicians, enabling them to view images and reports via a secure web-based system. This year, summit topics range from advanced PACS administration to building a 24x7 distributed teleradiology practice.
Always pushing the limits, Baldwin is particularly interested this year in improving SJRA’s disaster recovery system, to be certain that data are not affected by hardware failures or power cuts, for example. At the user summit she’ll have ample opportunity to get input from her professional peers, and at SIIM on June 3, she’ll be able to investigate her options with GE and the broader vendor community.
Americas CEO Mark Vachon Recommends Strategy to Reform Healthcare From Within
Healthcare in the US is in an in-between place. Reform legislation has passed, but the key provisions have yet to become reality. Mark Vachon, President & CEO, GE Healthcare Americas, believes this particular moment creates an unprecedented opportunity for the industry to gain perspective, rethink strategies, and be more inventive in devising solutions. To this point, Vachon has authored a whitepaper, released this week, that predicts four new areas of opportunity.
In Reforming the Healthcare System From Within, Vachon identifies four areas that are "ripe for improvement" in most healthcare organizations: cost control, capacity management, quality and safety, and strategic planning.
He says, "While preserving cash and freezing spending have been the priority over the last year, those tactics will not drive more sustainable, long-term competitive advantages in an organization. In many cases, there just has not been the stomach for making core changes that would disrupt the 'usual and customary' ways of operating — disruption that leads to true transformation."
Mark Vachon has led several of GE's businesses since joining the company in 1982. Prior to his current role as president and CEO for GE Healthcare for the Americas region, he headed up GE Healthcare's Global Diagnostic Imaging organization. Mark is dedicated to supporting clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform, treat and monitor disease, so people can live their lives to the fullest.
Q&A: GE Healthcare Showcases Innovations in Interventional Cardiology
Hooman Hakami
EuroPCR, the leading international congress dedicated to the cardiovascular community, is back in Paris this year. This congress represents an exciting opportunity for those involved in the cardiovascular field to discuss the challenges encountered, potential solutions and consider the future, with a view to translating the latest scientific research into clinical practice.
Hooman Hakami, president and CEO for Interventional Systems at GE Healthcare, provides his insight into two new technologies being announced at the show today -- Innova EPVision image fusion software and new compatibility for Fractional Flow Reserve (FFR) evaluation with the Mac-Lab XT and XTi hemodynamic recording systems.
GEHC news: What new innovations is GE Healthcare highlighting at EuroPCR 2010?
Hooman Hakami: We are excited to introduce several innovations at this year's EuroPCR. They include enhanced StentViz capabilities, multimodality in-room 3D capabilities controllable by a dedicated in-room 3D mouse at tableside, Innova Vision Technologies (see videos below), and our Mac-Lab hemodynamic recoding system with true FFR integration expanded to support both the St. Jude Pressurewire Aeris Wireless and the Volcano's SmartMap Pressure.
GEHC news: What is the significance of this news for physicians, and for patients?
Hakami: Enhanced visualization and greater workflow improvement, both of which mean more confidence for the physician, which ultimately means enhanced care for patients.
GEHC news: In what ways is GE Healthcare involved with cardiovascular disease?
Hakami: Our healthymagination vision is focused on providing solutions across the continuum of care that reduce costs, increase access and improve quality. Helping our customers more effectively treat cardiovascular disease is a critical part of this vision. At GE Healthcare, we have one of the richest and one of the most integrated cardiovascular solutions portfolios. It ranges from dedicated cardiovascular ultrasound to interventional systems including the cardiovascular x-ray, hemodynamic recording systems, ICE, IVUS, with dedicated cardiac applications and contrast media. All of this is complemented with tailored service offerings.
GEHC news: Tell us a little bit about GE Healthcare's interventional business.
Hakami: Our Interventional Systems business is a global business, that is made up of two components: vascular X-ray systems and invasive recording devices for both hemodynamic and electrophysiology. Our customers are very diverse, and include interventional cardiologists, interventional radiologists, interventional neuroradiologists, electrophysiologists, as well as vascular and cardiac surgeons. Our purpose as a business is to help our customers treat cardiovascular disease and cancer so people can lead longer and fuller lives. We look to fulfill that role by developing solutions that converge human skill with innovative technologies. Central to this is the notion that we need to be organized around our customers, and as such, we have four global business units within our Interventional Systems organization, each aligned to and focused on delivering unique solutions to meet the needs of our unique customers.
GEHC news: How does GE Healthcare's interventional business relate to the company’s healthymagination vision?
Hakami: In our view, the goals of healthymagination and the goals of our business are completely aligned. Take one element of the healthymagination vision — increasing access. For example, in China today, approximately 1.5 millionpeople need a percutaneous coronary intervention. That’s roughly the same as in the U.S. However, in the U.S. today the number of people who get this procedure is approximately 8-10 times higher than in China. This is due to a number of reasons, but it represents a great opportunity for us to provide solutions that help address this imbalance, and ultimately enhance the level of patient care — not only in China, but also around the world.
GEHC news: What can we expect from GE Healthcare in the next 2 to 5 years?
Hakami: We are exploring a range of innovative technologies from incremental enhancements to revolutionary technologies. We will continue to drive innovation in existing areas of strength such as advanced visualization, image quality and dose, but you can also expect to see innovation from us in newer areas as well, such as navigation and guidance. As we do, you can expect to see us play a broader role in the total interventional segment.
Jan De Witte Announces Sanesco Acquisition by GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare announces the acquisition of Sanesco SA, a leading French healthcare advisory services company with over 20 years of experience. Here, the president and CEO of GE Healthcare Services for Europe, the Middle East and Africa -- Jan De Witte -- discusses the agreement.
GE Healthcare and CardioDx Form Strategic Alliance; Includes $5 Million of Healthymagination Funding
GE Healthcare and CardioDx, a cardiovascular genomic diagnostics company have entered into a strategic alliance to advance and co-develop diagnostic technologies to improve the care and management of patients with cardiovascular disease. This is the first investment made by GE’s recently formed Healthymagination Fund. GE Healthcare's Mike Jones discusses the goals of the fund and gives an overview of today's agreement with CardioDx.GE Healthcare and CardioDx, a cardiovascular genomic diagnostics company have entered into a strategic alliance to advance and co-develop diagnostic technologies to improve the care and management of patients with cardiovascular disease. This is the first investment made by GE’s recently formed Healthymagination Fund. GE Healthcare's Mike Jones discusses the goals of the fund and gives an overview of today’s agreement with CardioDx.
GE Healthcare Puts Spotlight on State of Healthcare in the Middle East
GE Healthcares Middle East Media Summit
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates —Today GE Healthcare is bringing together industry experts and the media for the third annual Middle East Media Summit. The summit will highlight the importance of strong and strategic partnerships in addressing the challenges faced by the healthcare sector in the region. The event will feature a detailed overview of the state of healthcare in the region, as well as a comprehensive review of new technologies that can help address pressing healthcare issues.
"The Middle East region faces unique healthcare challenges ranging from the preponderance of lifestyle diseases in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries — such as obesity, diabetes and stress — to the lack of adequate healthcare infrastructure in some emerging markets," said Aziz Koleilat, general manager of GE Healthcare for the Middle East."Today, tangible changes in healthcare delivery are led by public and private partnerships that are focused on earlier healthcare. It is an accepted fact that rising healthcare costs can be managed if diseases are diagnosed earlier and treatment options provided when they can be more effective. The summit will further explore this through discussions on partnership building and performance solutions."
Central to the discussions will be GE’s healthymagination initiative, which is focused on continual development of products that reduce costs, increase access and improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare delivery around the world.
Another theme of the summit will be the importance of healthcare research and development. "Innovation is critical to the earlier detection and management of diseases and ensuring good health in a fast changing world," Koleilat said. "Along with the governmental emphasis on investments in healthcare innovation, the private sector must also invest more in R&D."
GE Healthcare has an established presence across the Middle East, partnering with healthcare providers in the private and public sectors. In addition to providing the latest diagnostic and medical technologies, GE also has structured training programmes to boost the skills of healthcare professionals in the region.
Radiologists from the Arab world and beyond gathered this week for the Third Arab Radiology Conference in the Dead Sea, in the King Hussein Bin Abdullah Convention Centre. The four-day conference featured a full schedule of speakers presenting the latest advances in the field.
GE Healthcare was among the principal sponsors, and launched its Optima CT660 scanner at the event. The Optima CT660is environmentally friendly, with electronics innovations that reduce power consumption by 60 percent using the energy saving mode. The new product qualifies under GE Healthcare’s healthymagination initiative, under which new products are independently validated to meet targets of affordability and sustainability, without compromising quality.
Elie Chahoud, general manager of the Levant region for GE Healthcare, said, “We are very pleased to be a part of the Arab Radiology Congress again this year and privileged to present to industry experts, institutions and the public the latest GE Healthcare innovations. It is also an educational platform that provides radiologists in the region insights into the new technologies and solutions.”
Q&A: Predicting the Future - GE Healthcare and Mount Sinai Medical Center Break New Ground
Jeff Terry
Like many American hospitals, Mount Sinai Medical Center is facing a considerable increase in its patient base. This is driven by healthcare reform, an ageing population and the imminent closure of another major New York City hospital. This pressure, coupled with ever-declining reimbursement rates, has created an immediate need to become more efficient.
It was this desire to increase hospital capacity and efficiency that led to a two-year engagement with GE Healthcare on an innovative project that helps Mount Sinai Medical Center cope with higher demand without physically expanding operations.
We asked Jeff Terry, Managing Principal of Clinical Excellence at GE Healthcare, to share his perspective on the project. Terry leads a team that focuses on using technology and consulting to improve how hospitals perform. The team specifically targets hospital capacity, reducing medical errors and service line innovation.
GEHC news: Why is this work with Mount Sinai Medical Center so important?
Jeff Terry:The literature, for decades, has indicated that the optimal operating capacity for a hospital is 85 percent, meaning that you can’t run a hospital properly when it’s fuller than that. What we’re demonstrating at Mount Sinai is that you can run a hospital at 95 percent occupancy, and do it in a way that’s safer, more sustainable, more reliable — and that puts less strain on staff than running at 85 percent — by truly optimizing how things work. We are redefining what’s possible in hospitals with this project. As Andy Day, the GEHC visionary behind hospital simulation, put it, “We’re defining a new normal.”
GEHC news: What was the genesis of this engagement with Mount Sinai Hospital?
Terry: The project started two to three years ago. Around that time, GE Healthcare’s account executive for Mount Sinai, Tom O’Connor, was involved in a discussion with some of the hospital’s senior executive team [including Wayne Keathley, featured in a recent Fox Business interview, see video clip below] about what Mount Sinai really needed. What they needed was the ability to care for more patients without building new ORs, adding more beds or hiring new staff.
At the time, GE Healthcare had some modest capability in that area, but Mount Sinai’s request served as a catalyst for us to get serious about accelerating our development. What they gave us was the world’s best laboratory to work this stuff out. It’s one thing to work on capacity management in a 150-bed suburban hospital, and quite another to do it in an 1100-bed hospital in Manhattan. Not to be cliché, but if you can do it there, you can do it anywhere.
GEHC news: What can you tell us about the project itself?
Terry:There are three layers to the Mount Sinai project. The base layer is AgileTrac, which is optimization software from GE Healthcare that draws location information from hospital systems about assets and patients, considers the care pathway each patient is in, and then communicates that information to the people who need it. Every hospital has some sort of audit system to do that already, but this is a much more sophisticated system.
The second layer is patient flow, which consists principally of consulting augmented by tools such as the Block Optimizer. We used information from AgileTrac to redesign three things: how they ran their processes, how they managed their schedule and how they managed governance, or the decision-making components of daily operations.
The third layer is simulation and prediction — taking the optimized processes and the information in AgileTrac to predict what will happen in, say, the next 8 or 12 hours. It’s this predictive information, when you layer it into the first two parts of the project, that is a real game changer.
GEHC news: Can you provide a scenario that illustrates the value of prediction in hospital operations?
Terry: In a typical hospital today, a patient arrives at the emergency department, and it takes at least a couple of hours before a physician writes the order to admit the patient. Someone then picks up the phone to request a bed for the patient, which sparks off a series of calls that occur before a bed is found and the patient is placed. That process may well take four hours and five phone calls.
What happens now at Mount Sinai, with prediction, is that the moment the patient arrives, the system knows from initial triage what the likely destination for that patient will be. Instead of waiting hours for the doctor to write an admission order, the system is already anticipating what needs to happen to get that patient a bed, and the decision maker in the hospital unit has better information to know precisely which bed can be allocated, depending on patient movements.
There are a hundred scenarios like that, but if you take this particular scenario, multiply it across the hospital and across the day, it adds up. It has a similar impact as building a hundred new hospital beds. So the new system creates virtual capacity. Mount Sinai is now able to treat up to 10,000 more patients per year with the same number of beds, staff and equipment.
GEHC news: Is there a danger that greater operational efficiency will erode the quality of care?
Terry: The opposite, in fact. It enables hospitals to operate in a safer and more sustainable way. The last thing we want is to cram more patients through and deliver a worse experience and less care. This is about improving efficiency, so the staff has more time to focus on patients because they aren’t running around trying to find beds. The challenge is that change is hard, and it takes a high level of sophistication for a hospital to do it.
GEHC news: Where does the project stand today?
Terry: We expect to complete the project in October. Of course we are already getting results. AgileTrac is now deployed throughout the center, and prediction is being piloted in different units. Since September 2008, we’ve had people on the ground, every day working with Mount Sinai staff. So it is absolutely a deep, multidimensional relationship.
GEHC news: Does this project really represent a “first”, or do other vendors have similar solutions?
Terry: The first two elements of the project are GE Healthcare commercial products. We’re working with numerous customers for both asset optimization and patient flow. It’s the prediction element that’s new, and the only place we’re doing that is at Mount Sinai. What’s new from a GE perspective is bringing those first two things together, adding prediction and bringing it all together as one solution.
More broadly speaking, the concept of tracking patients is quite new. The idea has only been out there for a year or two, and we’re very much at the front end of it. To my knowledge, no one else is doing predictive work. There are competitive products to AgileTrac and patient flow, and we certainly can argue that our solutions are the best. But nobody else is doing prediction.
GEHC news: Can any hospital benefit from prediction, and can they afford it?
Terry: The business case will vary for every hospital, but there is a significant financial benefit to hospitals for doing this. In the case of Mount Sinai, it expects to see a $120 million annual return to the project. Of course a small hospital in Texas might see a $2 million return, but there’s still a financial benefit. And that’s where the healthcare reform story comes in. Reform will do two things — it will bring more patients into the system earlier, and it will reduce the amount hospitals are paid per patient. The only rational response to that pressure is to be more efficient.
In-house biomed support is MD Anderson Cancer Center’s vent maintenance strategy – and a major reason that the Engstrom Carestation is its Critical Care ventilator of choice. The BMEs who work on it love its accessible component layout and lack of cumbersome pneumatic tubing. But they don’t have much opportunity to appreciate it; the Carestations mainly visit the shop for annual PM.
A new resource for healthcare decision-makers. Content-rich resources focused on helping healthcare decision-makers discover better ways to control costs, lead and strategize, improve quality and safety, and increase capacity.
GE Healthcare has just launched its Next Level digital community for healthcare decision-makers, focused on helping hospitals and healthcare facilities discover better ways to lead by controlling costs, improving quality and safety, and increasing capacity.
Using timely industry insight, Next Level aims to tackle the most complex issues faced by healthcare companies today. The community connects C-level executives, senior managers and leading healthcare experts around the concepts of Costs, Quality and Safety, Capacity and Leadership and Strategy, using original blogs and stories, whitepapers, webinars and multimedia generated by GE thought leaders.
Bret Barczak, GM Service and Solutions Marketing, whose team built the Next Level site says: “Financial challenges and patient safety and satisfaction are among the top concerns for hospital CEOs. GE’s experience working closely with hospital leaders on these very issues positions us to drive discussion and provide insight on these important topics. With the Next Level community, the tremendous leaders and consultants within GE Performance Solutions are well suited to provide fresh ideas, in-depth information and inspiration to guide healthcare organizations to the next level of performance.”
“We look forward to hearing the industry’s reaction to this new site and welcome participation on the Next Level forum.”
Click here to listen to a panel discussion on the current state of healthcare in the United States and the impact of reform on health systems, sponsored by GE and available on the Next Level community.
GE Healthcare Introduces Hi-Tech Breakthrough 3.0T MR Imaging to Romania
GE Healthcare’s HDxt 3.0T Magnetic Resonance
GE Healthcare and Signa+ Medical Imaging Center recently announced the installation of Romania’s first 3.0 Tesla Magnetic Resonance (MR) Scanner. A first for Romanian medical services, 3.0T MR investigations are now available to patients in Bucharest at Signa+’s new center for research and diagnostics in medical imaging.
“We are happy to be part of a landmark project that gives Romanian patients and specialists access to some of the most innovative medical imaging technology available today. Improved, earlier diagnosis can mean better prevention and treatment options for a wide range of diseases,” said Radu Groduza-Lupu, Zone Manager for Romania and Moldova, GE Healthcare. “Our HDxt 3.0T MR represents breakthrough innovation in medical technology and demonstrates our commitment to continuously improving quality and access to healthcare, offering exceptional solutions for healthcare systems worldwide. Signa+ will be a GE Healthcare Center of Excellence and confirms our confidence in the potential of the Romanian healthcare market.”
GE Healthcare’s HDxt 3.0T MR is the one of the most sophisticated scanners available for clinical use, helping to provide clearer, more precise images that highlight previously undetectable details. Innovative features of the system help reduce exam set up and scanning times. Patients can spend less time in the scanner, doctors can get better images, and the overall patient experience can be improved.
A number of investigations which could previously only be done using Computed Tomography scanning can now be performed to the same qualitative standard using the HDxt 3.0T MR scanner, but without the need for the associated x-ray dose.
This installation is in line with GE’s healthymagination strategy aimed at improving access to healthcare technologies for more people worldwide.
Listen to Radu Groduza-Lupu, Zone Sales Manager for Romania and Moldova at GE Healthcare, talking about the impact of this innovative technology for Romania on the link below.
Neil Boyce Named Country Manager of GE Healthcare South Africa Operations
Neil Boyce at GE Healthcare's press event in Johannesburg last week
The World Cup is about to start in South Africa but, in the meantime, GE Healthcare also has some exciting news to share. The Company, strongly committed to strengthening its presence in the country, has recently announced the appointment of Neil Boyce as Country Manager of its GE Healthcare South Africa operations.
Based in Johannesburg, Neil Boyce will play a leading role in driving organic growth in South Africa. He will be responsible for developing and expanding customer relationships, as well as executing on a strategy around long-term public and private sector partnerships to help transform healthcare delivery in the country.
“The South African market for GE Healthcare is witnessing a dramatic growth and we have already identified a clear market strategy,” says Boyce.
Boyce expects GE Healthcare to play an integral role in providing primary health services through mobile hospital units. Moreover, the training of health-service suppliers is one of the Company’s priorities. “This year we plan to start schooling 500 people in partnership with training institutions. We will offer specific training courses for the likes of hospital managers and technicians,” adds Boyce. “In parallel, we will continue to bring to the local market relevant innovative technologies. But as we say at GE, it’s not innovation for innovation's sake. It’s about innovation that successfully targets our customers and their patients needs.”
One such example is the recent commercial launch of Vscan in South Africa, in line with the Company’s healthymagination initiative. Vscan, GE Healthcare's pocket-sized visualization tool, is a clear reflection of healthymagination’s mission around bringing high quality health care at lower cost to more people around the world. Vscan can potentially help accelerate time to diagnosis, reduce patient wait times and improve physician workflow.
Boyce concludes: “I am very excited to take on this new role at GE Healthcare. Moreover, I look to leverage my experience with this country’s marketplace to bring value-added insights to drive GE’s market leadership position together with the team in South Africa.”
GE continues to focus on providing innovations that help healthcare providers deliver clinical excellence and better patient care through exceptional image quality and reduced dose. Through this series, you will learn about physicians and patients that are benefiting from low dose technologies around the world.
LOW DOSE SERIES 1: Meet the team at Centre Cardiologique du Nord (CCN), France
Discovery CT750 HD is a high definition CT system that advances image quality through increased resolution with lower X-ray dose. Leveraging GE's GemstoneTM technology and HD reconstruction, Discovery CT750 HD improves image quality while reducing dose up to 50% across the entire body, maintaining GE’s position as a low dose technology leader.
In July 2008, CCN installed the Discovery CT750 HD. More than 15,000 exams have been performed since then. More recently, with the introduction of GemstoneTM Spectral Imaging (GSI), the team at CCN have achieved new standards in image quality across many different clinical applications. Watch some exciting patient cases with clinical images in this video.
A Portable ECG Device Makes Debut At Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games
GE Healthcare sales manager Michael Wallace-Tarry trains some of the medical staff on the features and capabilities of the MAC 800.
Since 2005, GE has been sponsoring the Olympic Games, however, this year is first one where GE is also sponsoring the Paralympic Winter Games. In line with its commitment with the Olympics, GE Healthcare announced on Friday that the Company’s portable ECG (electrocardiograph) device, the MAC 800, is being implemented in both Vancouver and Whistler to help support physician care of athletes, trainers and visitors throughout the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games.
MAC 800 is one of GE’s first healthymagination validated products for increasing access to basic ECG testing. It has the features of a full size, ECG device, engineered down to under seven pounds. Its innovative keypad, with SMS-style mobile phone design, and easy access to function keys help simplify and speed ECG operations, enabling medical teams to get immediate information regarding the overall health and functioning of a patient’s heart.
“GE’s MAC 800 ECG technology will play a big role in assisting medical care at the Paralympic Games and we are excited to have it on board,” said Jack Taunton, chief medical officer of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
Connectivity within a physician’s work environment is a key to coordinated care and improved diagnoses. MAC 800 also includes LAN, modem, SD card and serial port to store and send ECG data from a wide variety of locations and it connects to a variety of vendors’ EMR solutions via Cardiosoft, GE’s cardiology information software system, creating a fully digital ECG workflow. “Its ability to store, send and analyze ECG data in a variety of ways will provide us the flexibility and connectivity needed to get information, helping to improve access to heart care,” adds Taunton.
Units will be deployed in the Vancouver and Whistler Polyclinics, the Vancouver Paralympic Center, Whistler Olympic Park and at BC Place for both the opening and closing ceremonies.
Left to right: winners of this year’s competition, Keiko Suzuki, Corey Seehus and Miriam Ascagni.
The winning images from this GE Healthcare’s annual IN Cell Image Competition lit up the night on NBC’s high-definition screen in Times Square, New York City, from 5 through 7 March 2010. This year’s competition saw over 80 incredible images generated by scientists from more than 10 countries around the world using the IN Cell Analyzer system. The images were shortlisted by a scientific panel and the winners determined through a public vote.
It’s a privilege to have a great opportunity to show once more the beauty of science to people in a multicultural place such as Times Square,” said the twice European Winner, Dr Miriam Ascagni from DIBIT-San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Italy. “My image shows bone marrow derived cells. The final goal is to use them to generate replacements for muscle cells that are lost because of injury or disease.”
Keiko Suzuki, the winner for Asia, from Showa University, Japan, said: “The IN Cell Analyzer’s ability to take so many pictures in a short time allows us to save a lot of time. My image shows how osteoclasts communicate and fuse with each other. This is important, because by knowing the mechanism of fusion we can develop more effective drugs with less adverse effects.”
“I love the work I am engaged in right now, and this competition was an awesome bonus,” said North America winner Corey Seehus, of Brain Cells, Inc. “We’re trying to find a different way of finding small molecules that will work to induce differentiation in the neurons in the human brain.”
The winning entries will also be featured in GE Healthcare’s IN Cell Analyzer Image Calendar 2011.
Sample clinical images courtesy of GE Healthcare imaging systems are now available for you to view at any time, thanks to the new Clinical IMAGES iPhone app developed by GE Healthcare. A radiologist can choose a product, and browse sample images and videos by anatomy or by applications specific to the selected system.
So why did GE Healthcare decide to develop this application? “Radiologists and hospital administrators have been early adopters of the iPhone. They like the ability to access visual information quickly. We listened to our customers and believed this could be a great tool to share information with them” said Tom Verghese, Chief Marketing Officer, MR Global Marketing.
The application has proven to be a fantastic tool to show customers the quality and accuracy of sample images obtained from GE Healthcare equipment. “There are times when you could only meet the radiologist at the hallway of the hospital for 30 seconds. Now with this application we can show them right there more than 100 clinical images and videos” adds Tom. The application was demonstrated for the first time at RSNA 2009 and it became the perfect and most innovative alternative to the e-pannels on the booth when they were occupied.
It only took 6 weeks to develop the Clinical IMAGES application that currently holds near 100 images and videos taken on the Optima MR450W, one of GE Healthcare latest’s MR systems. GE Healthcare plans to keep adding new product and clinical image sets periodically to the application, including Xray, ultrasound, and PET/NUC, which will be available soon.
Catch the Cellular Magic in Times Square this Weekend
Image from GE Healthcare’s IN Cell Image Competition to illuminate the beauty of science.
The winning images from this GE Healthcare’s annual IN Cell Image Competition will light up the night on NBC’s high-definition screen in Times Square, New York City, from 5 through 7 March 2010. The annual competition celebrates the beauty of life at the cellular level, as revealed by scientists in their drug discovery and research.
See the images live for yourself at these times in Times Square:
Friday March 5th – 7.00 pm
Saturday March 6th – 7.00 pm
Sunday March 7th – 10.30 am
Watch this space: Catch up with the winning scientists and their trip to NYC in a full-featured report on the goings on this weekend in Times Square back here next week.
This year’s competition saw over 80 incredible images generated by scientists from more than 10 countries using the IN Cell Analyzer system. The images were shortlisted by a scientific panel and the winners determined through a public vote.
42,000 Year-old Baby Mammoth Scanned at GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare got a close-up look at a 42,000 year-old baby woolly mammoth using state of the art medical equipment. Discovered in 2007 by a reindeer herder in northwestern Siberia, Lyuba (pronounced Lee-OO-bah) is considered the best-preserved mammoth ever discovered.
Researchers wanted to collect data to learn more about the life and features of this extinct species. “A lot of the information Lyuba can provide is not visible on the surface, so to be able to see things through a CT scan or an MRI which show her internal organs and the structure beneath her skin is really important,” says Tom Swerski, Project Manager of Exhibitions of The Field Museum.
In collaboration with the International Mammoth Committee (IMC) and The Field Museum, Lyuba was brought to the GE Healthcare Institute in Waukesha, WI to be imaged on three different systems. First, she was scanned on the Discovery CT750 HD, a 64-slice, high definition CT scanner. The images obtained from this scan allow scientists to learn more about her internal mineral deposits as well as her bone structure. Second, in an effort to see her entire skeletal structure from head to tail, she was imaged on the Innova® 4100IQ, a three-dimensional digital X-ray system. Finally, Lyuba was scanned on a high performance open MRI system, the Signa OpenSpeed EXCITE 0.7T, to view her soft tissue including the brain, liver and heart.
“The emotions we felt in looking at these images were like those we experienced when we saw Lyuba for the first time,” says Daniel Fisher, a University of Michigan professor who has studied mammoths for 30 years and is an IMC member.
The scientists studying Lyuba also have been trying to determine what caused her death. As best as they can tell, she became trapped in a mud hole and inadvertently ingested mud. With the CT scan, the scientists now have evidence of silt in her trunk and in her lungs that confirm her cause of death as accidental suffocation. The cause of death is important because the scientists can reconfirm that Lyuba was not ill or poorly developed, factors that might negate her value as a normal mammoth specimen.
Lyuba is currently on loan from Russia for seven months and will be on display for the first time in the United States in the upcoming exhibition, Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age opening March 5 at The Field Museum in Chicago.
With the numbers of seniors expected to rise dramatically and increasing numbers of patients experiencing chronic disease, the current focus on face-to-face clinic interaction with the provider is not a sustainable delivery model. Technology could enable new care models to help rein in costs and improve patient outcomes through personalized care and ongoing disease management at home and in the community.
GE Healthcare, Intel Corporation and Mayo Clinic are investigating a new model of health care delivery for patients at increased risk of rehospitalization that is designed to meet patients’ needs where they are, including in their homes. Mayo Clinic will conduct a yearlong research study to determine if home monitoring of patients with chronic diseases, using Intel’s remote patient monitoring technology, will reduce hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits.
Omar Ishrak, President and CEO Clinical Systems at GE Healthcare explains on the video how the Company is working with Mayo Clinic and Intel to gain further insight on how to deliver technologies that improve the lives of seniors and people with chronic diseases.
Team Canada goalie Martin Brodeur waves to hundreds of fans at the GE healthymagination skating event on February 19, 2010 at GE Plaza during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, BC, Canada. He joined fellow Olympians Michelle Kwan, Angela Ruggiero, Scott Hamilton in a panel discussion on healthy living with VANOC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Taunton and Mike Barber - GE VP of healthymagination. Pictured L-to-R: Michelle Kwan, Martin Brodeur and Angela Ruggiero (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Last Friday, GE celebrated its healthymagination event at the Olympic Games in Vancouver. Along with Olympic medalists Martin Brodeur, Scott Hamilton, Michelle Kwan and Angela Ruggiero, the Company kicked off GE’s Year of Better Health as part of its healthymagination initiative, which seeks to provide better health for more people through technology and innovation.
Just before the Olympians skated alongside dozens of “Better Health Heroes” – the medical staff and volunteers from the Vancouver Organizing Committee of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC), a lively chat took place at the GE Plaza at Robson Square.
The Olympians, VANOC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jack Taunton and GE healthymagination Vice President Mike Barber discussed on the importance of healthy living, based on the experience of the athletes preparing for the Olympic Winter Games.
Martin Brodeur (goalie for Team Canada Ice Hockey and gold medalist in Salt Lake City) told the crowd that good health is not just physical, but emotional as well. “When you go out every day to perform, you have to take care of yourself. A healthy lifestyle is not just exercise or eating right, it’s an attitude as well,” Brodeur said.
“GE is excited to partner with this renowned group of Olympians to salute the Better Health Heroes of the Vancouver Games. These athletes are great role models to all, not just for their many accomplishments, but also for making the commitment to lead a healthy lifestyle,” said Barber. “healthymagination will help everyday people take that initiative and be more proactive about healthy living,”
GE, through it healthymagination site (http://www.healthymagination.com) provides helpful tools and useful information to take a more proactive role on your own health. Visit the site and kick off Your Year of Better Health!!!!!
GE Healthcare spotlights ‘healthymagination’ at Arab Health 2010
GE Healthcare has highlighted its commitment to technology that delivers healthier experiences for caregivers and patients at the Arab Health Exhibition and Congress 2010, held in Dubai between 25 and 28 January this year. GE Healthcare’s focus has been on ‘healthymagination’, the Company’s innovative approach to healthcare that helps patients live longer, healthier lives by lowering costs, reaching more people and improving the quality of healthcare delivery.
This video shows GE Healthcare’s Vscan ultrasound and MSK Extreme MR at Arab Health 2010, featuring John Dineen (GE Healthcare President and CEO) and Aziz Koleilat (GE Healthcare General Manager for the Middle East).
If we can redirect healthcare resources into developing better ways to predict, diagnose, treat and monitor disease while leveraging information throughout this continuum, we could have a much healthier population. Do we need to prove that more can be done to help more people live cancer-free life? Or should we act now?
To raise awareness, every year on Feb 4th is World Cancer Day, focused on addressing the many challenges of cancer and cancer care. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 84 million people worldwide will die from cancer between 2005 and 2015 without intervention. Actually, about one-third of the cancer burden could potentially be decreased if cases were detected and treated early.
The emphasis on cancer diagnostic and care products follows reports on the increasing incidence of cancer and other lifestyle diseases around the world. “This growth in disease puts tremendous pressure on governments and leads to mounting healthcare bills, expected to grow fivefold by 2025,” said Robert Dann, Global Oncology Marketing Executive at GE Healthcare. “GE’s products and solutions facilitate early diagnosis, and can aid improving the quality of treatment decisions. This approach builds on our healthymagination initiative to reduce cost of healthcare delivery and improve quality of care throughout the world.”
GE Healthcare works with physicians around the world to help clinicians realize the possibilities of connected oncology care towards early detection and treatment. Enabling cutting-edge research, strengthening cancer diagnosis, facilitating cancer treatment, and simplifying information sharing among the members of cancer care teams is at the core of GE Healthcare’s approach to oncology.
“Cancer represents a tremendous burden on patients, families and societies. Moreover, cancer is a complex disease where so much information needs to be brought together to fit the care to the patient,” added Dann. “Every day dedicated oncology teams around the world are searching for solutions that will help them manage the many variables and provide quality care for their patients.”
Despite being a leading cause of death around the world, 30% of cancers can potentially be prevented by avoiding risk factors, such as tobacco use and obesity, and others can be successfully treated and possibly cured by earlier detection and improvement of disease management.
This year’s GE Healthcare IN Cell Image competition winners were announced at the High Content Analysis (HCA) Conference in San Francisco, USA, last week. Each of the three regional winners, from Asia, Europe and North America, has won a trip to New York City in March 2010 to see their images shown on NBC’s high-definition TV screen in Times Square.
This year’s competition saw over 70 beautiful images generated by scientists from around the world using the IN Cell Analyzer system. An expert scientific panel short-listed 30 entries, which were then opened to public vote and to conference delegates.
High Content Analysis (HCA) has become essential in many areas of life science research and drug discovery. HCA employs cellular assays in a high-throughput imaging and analysis format, which facilitates more complex experiments in true biological context and helps scientists get better data and learn more about cellular systems more quickly.
Showing promise in helping to reduce costs and improve patient care, ‘Clinical Decision Support Tools' predict the comparative risks and benefits of disease-appropriate imaging techniques. GE Healthcare recently expanded its presence in this market through a strategic partnership with Medicalis, providing clinicians with real time information and the patient-specific pros and cons of any potential imaging test.
Dr. Ramin Khorasani is Vice Chair and Director of Medical Imaging IT at the Boston, Massachusetts- based Brigham and Women's Hospital in the US. He and his team have pioneered use of this technology to help reduce unnecessary scans and ensure that patients receive evidence-based medical care. During his participation at GE Healthcare's 2009 RSNA press conference, Dr. Khorasani explained how Clinical Decision Support Tools' help to improve the efficiency of his radiology department:
"Provider communities, payers' organizations and governmental agencies should pay real close attention to the use of evidence-based delivery models in care to improve, accelerate and enforce adoption of best practice — so that people in every corner of the country can have the similar quality of care delivered to them."
At this year's RSNA, Richard Ehman MD, Professor of Radiology and leader of the team that developed Magnetic Resonance (MR) elastography at the non-profit Mayo Clinic in the US, explains how palpation inspired the development of GE Healthcare's MR Touch technology.
For centuries, clinicians have evaluated tissue stiffness — the physical property of tissue most affected by disease — through palpation (examination by touching). However, many regions of the body are not accessible to palpation and conventional diagnostic imaging technologies do not allow physicians to assess tissue stiffness.
Through the use of acoustic energy, vibrations in the body create mechanical waves as they move through tissues, which can be imaged with MR Touch. From that information, doctors obtain images that show the stiffness of tissue inside the body.
In this video, Prof Ehman, explains how MR Touch is being used at Mayo Clinic, offering a reliable, non invasive alternative diagnosis to patients in the very early stages of disease.
Imaging Quality, Lower Costs and Greater Access for Surgeons and Patients
Pete McCabe, President of GE Healthcare Surgery, explains how GE Healthcare applies Healthymagination to the surgery business and maintains its leadership in mobile C-arm surgical imaging.
By providing cutting-edge research applications and complete infrastructure solutions, GE helps industry understand disease from the beginning.
As the world better understands molecular medicine, there is a growing convergence of therapeutics and diagnostics in the healthcare industry. Jean Luc Vanderheyden, Molecular Imaging Global Leader at GE Healthcare, explains how the company is at the forefront of this convergence with the latest in radiopharmacy and pre-clinical innovations.
Have you ever noticed the beauty in science? If not, then get a little bit closer. These images of cellular processes generated using GE Healthcare’s IN Cell Analyzer are also as stunning pieces of art.
This year GE Healthcare received over 70 beautiful images from researchers worldwide, working in toxicology, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, immunology, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis and neurology.
A scientific panel has short-listed 30, and now it’s time for you to vote and help select three winners — one each from North America, Europe and Asia.
Voting for GE Healthcare’s annual IN Cell Image Competition is now open at www.gelifesciences.com/incellcompetition, and you have until January 6, 2010 to choose your favorite picture.
"The IN Cell Image Competition is a great opportunity to showcase the fascination of science to people who would not usually have any involvement in research," said Dr Miriam Ascagni from the DIBIT-San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Italy, and last year’s European Winner.
If you cannot be at RSNA today, you can still visit our virtual trade show for RSNA 2009 at www.gehealthcare.com/rsna
Company unveils its latest innovations centered on achieving better healthcare for more people at lower cost
Today GE Healthcare kicked off its participation at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting in Chicago, featuring its latest innovations with a focus on the company's "Healthymagination" initiative, centered on achieving better healthcare for more people at lower cost.
Controlling costs, increasing access and improving quality are challenges for healthcare worldwide. The GE Healthcare exhibit allows RSNA attendees to see and experience some of the innovative technologies that will help transform healthcare by addressing the underlying issues of quality, cost and access. Through GE's healthymagination technologies, the company is well-positioned to help address these global challenges and help radiologists improve and broaden access to healthcare and reduce its cost.
Healthymagination Innovations
For centuries, clinicians have evaluated tissue stiffness—the physical property of tissue most affected by disease—through palpation. A great example of the healthymagination innovations displayed at RSNA is MR-Touch, a visual palpation technology that uses low frequency sound waves in combination with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to measure tissue elasticity. Based on technology invented at Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minnesota) and licensed to GE Healthcare, MR-Touch extends the principles of palpation with a precise, non-invasive, cost-effective way to evaluate tissue stiffness.
Another GE first new-to-market product feature validated under the healthymagination initiative is GE's new Innova® dose-efficient X-ray technology. During a procedure, Innova automatically and continuously adapts to help keep image quality and patient dose at optimum levels. The technology can reduce patient dose by as much as 40% without compromising image quality.
The company strives to advance its line of miniaturized ultrasound, also featured at RSNA this year, with the recently launched Venue 40, one of the first new products validated under GE's healthymagination initiative, which is focused on improving quality and efficiency, increasing access and reducing costs. Its small size and streamlined cart allow for real-time imaging in the smallest of clinical spaces. Along with Venue 40, GE Healthcare announced new breakthrough technologies, including the LOGIQ® E9 general imaging ultrasound system that expands its capabilities with new transducers and software enhancements to provide improved image quality and productivity to pediatric, vascular and cardiac imaging.
These technologies reflect the new opportunities GE sees in healthcare. GE Healthcare's healthymagination portfolio helps drive cost savings to healthcare systems worldwide, and enables rural and urban areas to gain access to technologies and affordable quality of care.
GE Healthcare also announced the company's sponsorship of a multi-center research trial to validate the clinical efficacy of Model Based Iterative Reconstruction (MBIR) as a method to maintain or improve diagnostic information available to clinicians, while dramatically lowering radiation dose in routine CT imaging. This multi-center trial involving the company's breakthrough Discovery CT750 HD system demonstrates GE's efforts to advance the standard of care with non-invasive lower dose CT imaging technology to aid in the diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of diseases.
Breakthroughs in sound wave imaging. Navigation during interventional procedures. Miniaturized ultrasound. Dose eficiency. At RSNA 2009, GE Healthcare showcases technologies that will help radiologists change the way they approach healthcare, focusing on addressing three critical needs: accelerating healthcare information technology, targeting high-tech products to more affordable price points and broadening access to the underserved.
There are over a hundred trillion cells in the human body; more than there are galaxies in the universe. Scientists investigating the body use advanced imaging systems, like GE Healthcare's high-content analysis system, the IN Cell Analyzer, to look into the body's cells. Researchers looking for new medicines need to see how drugs affect cells involved in disease processes. This could help indicate whether to take a drug compound forward for more testing. Knowing more about disease in its earliest stages and catching it sooner can help lead to improved treatment for patients and lower costs. This process begins at the cellular level.
But beyond helping scientists get a better understanding of diseases and drugs to treat them, images delivered by IN Cell Analyzer can also be stunning pieces of art.
That's why, every year, we ask our users to submit their images to our IN Cell Image competition. More than 80 fabulous images were submitted by researchers worldwide in last year's competition, covering a range of application areas such as toxicology, cancer and neurology.
Smart Art
Stunning images of life at the cellular level were captured using GE Healthcare's IN Cell Analyzer.
Broadway Bound
The three winning images from GE Healthcare's IN Cell Image Competition were on display on NBC's high-definition screen in New York City's Times Square in March 2009.
An expert scientific panel short-listed 30 entries, after which 2,000 scientists chose their favorite image in a public vote. Three winners were duly selected, one from North America, one from the Asia region and one from Europe, and their outstanding images of life at the cellular level were displayed on NBC's high-definition screen at Times Square, New York city, in March 2009.
Carmen Laethem of Aerie Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and winner of the North America category says: "I think this contest is great. It shows people that science is beautiful, these cells are beautiful and that science is actually a fun thing to do."
Breast cancer is the second biggest cause of cancer deaths in the world, according to the World Health Organization. Globally, more than 1.2 million people are diagnosed with breast cancer every year.
Early detection and advanced technologies, however, have helped reduce mortality rates in the United States by 30 per cent since 1989. GE Healthcare has been a leader in the field of breast cancer detection through mammography devices since the 1960s. Today there are over 17,000 GE Healthcare mammography systems in use worldwide.
GE Healthcare's passion is to develop new technologies that improve the accuracy of breast cancer diagnosis, and to bring access to these technologies wherever they are needed. This has led us to participate in a range of projects around the world, including a recent research and development programme with the Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP), where we have explored advanced technologies for the early detection of breast cancer. We are also participating in a three year project to establish a regional breast cancer screening network in Deyang, a city in China's Sichuan province, to help increase access to breast cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment. This includes the use of remote diagnosis in rural areas.
October marked both Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the tenth anniversary of digital mammography — a technology introduced by GE Healthcare in 1999. Similar to digital photography, digital mammography replaces the use of film with digital files that can be viewed and stored on computers.
To commemorate the anniversary, and GE Healthcare's ongoing commitment to fighting breast cancer, we have created a digital wall of personal stories from those whose lives have been touched by breast cancer — as well as doctors, scientists and fundraisers who work tirelessly against the disease. You can visit the wall at www.breastcanceremotion.gehealthcare.com
Touching Lives: Rosemonde Lesobre, Infant Care manager at GE Healthcare, poses with employees at one of the installation sites in Rwanda.
Healthymagination is GE's initiative centered on achieving improved healthcare for more people at lower cost. Healthymagination will change the way we approach healthcare, with more than 100 innovations focused on addressing three critical needs: lowering costs, increasing access and improving quality of care.
Since the initiative launched in May this year, we have worked with partners around the globe, focusing innovations on four critical needs: accelerating healthcare information technology; developing high-tech products at more affordable price points; broadening access to the underserved; and supporting consumer-driven health.
A great example of where these kinds of initiatives are taking place is at the 10 locations of Collier Health Services in the Naples, Florida area, where GE's Centricity EMRs are giving their patient population, many of whom are migrant farm workers, access to the center's care from multiple locations. Doctors can now see patients while they are in the office or at home just by bringing up their chart through electronic medical records and electronically transmitting prescriptions directly to pharmacies, reducing waiting times dramatically (find out more here http://www.healthymagination.com/ges-emrs-connecting-the-docs-in-10-communities/).
Another interesting project combines capabilities from GE Energy, GE Water Technologies and GE Healthcare to provide sustainable solutions for healthcare improvement in three rural hospitals in Rwanda. GE Healthcare employees, through the Developing Health Globally™ program, installed Maternal-Infant Care and Ultrasound equipment where there was not similar equipment before. The technology helped save a baby's life. Read the story here http://www.healthymagination.com/ge-healthcare-employees-bring-sustainability-to-rwandan-hospital/
We are making healthymagination inherent in our product development. Lowering costs, increasing access and improving the quality of care is our platform driving the design of our products. These key themes form the framework of how we do business.
![Mike Barber, vice president for GE healthymagination, led a panel highlighting strategies and solutions that healthcare institutions can adopt to reduce costs, improve quality and meet future health needs. [L-R] Warner Thomas, president and COO, Ochsner Health System; Rich Miller, president and CEO, Virtua; Tom Dolan, president and CEO, American College of Healthcare Executives; and GE's Mike Barber.](/_uploads/images/Photo_3_a_--_final.jpg)
![The first panel of the conference discussed how to enable safer hospitals, which result in healthier patients. [L-R] Dr. Hal Kaplan, Professor of Health Evidence and Policy at Mount Sinai School of Medicine; Diane C. Pinakiewicz, president, National Patient Safety Foundation; Dr. Mark Chassin, president, The Joint Commission.](/_uploads/images/Panel_1_-_photo_4_--_final.jpg)
