Healthcare providers around the world are facing a myriad of changes including the rise of unprecedented chronic disease, aging populations, and escalating costs. Heart diseases have emerged as the number one killer in both urban and rural areas of India. About 25% of deaths in the age group of 25-69 years & 19% in all age groups occur because of heart diseases. Cardiovascular disease in India has quadrupled in the last 40 years and WHO estimates that by 2020, close to 60 percent of cardiac patients worldwide will be from India with probability of heart attack six years earlier than people anywhere else. This unfair burden is especially harsh on rural population with loss of healthy, working days and rising cost of healthcare estimated to be between 12 – 14% annually, over the last decade according to National Commission on Macroeconomics & health. Providing quality healthcare to patient populations spread across vast remote or rural areas is a daunting challenge with limited availability of trained manpower, rising healthcare costs and/or limited facilities for early detection and treatment of disease.
Mr John Dineen, President & CEO, GE Healthcare, who unveiled the new innovations today at Bangalore commented: “When we launched healthymagination two years ago, our vision was to provide better health for more people at lower costs. Through the use of powerful technology, innovation and talent of our people, we are addressing global healthcare needs – reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality – in real and relevant ways. We are tremendously proud of our initial achievements: 29 healthymagination validated products, $ 700 Million in research and development investment and more than 135 million lives touched in new ways in the first two years.
"In India, healthymagination also means using local knowledge and expertise to developing the best medical technologies in the world. Some of these are local technologies and solutions which will exclusively serve the Indian market; but other inventions will be exported to doctors and health systems around the world. Two great examples are the devices we are launching today: the GE Healthcare MAC 600 ECG and GE VIVID P3 ultrasound system.” added Mr. Dineen.
Reaching better, affordable cardiac care to more people with Digital ECG.
Around the world, improving health starts by improving access to healthcare technology. The new GE MAC 600 is a lightweight, portable, easy to use digital resting ECG device that puts leading clinical technology simplified and resized to fit the hands of a physician in small towns and rural areas. It is designed to save time, energy and paper. The ECG results are presented in color on-screen with options to save the results in standard adobe acrobat files in detachable SD memory cards. With MAC 600, physicians have the option of printing the only selected files and storing the files digitally as well as transfer of the results using removable SD Card & mobile phones for expert opinions or base hospitals/clinics. The MAC 600 comes with Cardiosoft ECG viewer with facilities for easy access to thousands of ECG tests, searchable by patient. The system provides an option of transfer of files to a PC and printing ECG results coming from 12 leads to a single, plain sheet making it one of the best product for mass screening of cardiac diseases.
GE’s MAC 600 allows physician to determine the quality of ECG being taken is good or bad through its hookup advisor and thereby helping to avoid potential errors. GE’s MAC 600 carries best features that are hallmark of GE MAC ECG systems - proven, Marquette 12 SL ECG analysis software, portability, battery backed operations for upto 250 patients in one battery charge etc. These features combined by digital storage in adobe acrobat file format makes MAC 600 highly suited for large scale cost-effective cardiac diagnosis. By using the on-screen review feature, one MAC 600 used in an urban clinic has the potential to save the equivalent of one tree per year or 59 kg of paper annually, making it one of the most eco-friendly medical products.
GE’s MAC 600 is available at Rs.60000-75000/-, 80% lower prices than similar quality, FDA cleared ECG solutions that are being imported currently.
First cardiac ultrasound system to be designed & developed in India:
While ECG is the primary screening tool in the war against cardiac diseases, cardiac ultrasound is considered the second step for detecting a cardiac condition with real time non-invasive imaging of the heart. To date, cardiac ultrasound systems had to be imported into India making affordability hard for the neediest patients in small towns & villages. GE VIVID P3 is a dedicated cardiac imaging ultrasound system developed in India for India and the world to bridge the affordability gap in this speciality care area. VIVID P3 offers several features aimed at enhancing image quality, facilitating rapid interpretation, and improving diagnostic confidence which features include live Anatomical M-Mode, Tissue Doppler Imaging, Automatic Tissue, and Spectrum Optimization. VIVID P3 is based on GE Tru-ScanTM technology that is common to all GE ultrasound systems. It is simple, ergonomic and enables fast and efficient data management & transfer of images. It also provides advanced analysis tools such as Stress Echo protocols for adult patients usually available only in expensive, high end ultrasound systems. The new GE VIVID P3 is available at 50% lower cost, at Rs.11-12 Lakhs as compared to FDA cleared, imported similar quality products priced above Rs.20 Lakhs.
Creating the right technology is indeed crucial for saving lives and elaborating on the same, Mr. Omar Ishrak-President and Chief Executive Officer, GE Healthcare Systems said, “Technology has been the heart of creating solutions that have saved so many lives around the world. What is even more crucial is that these developments from GE are clinically relevant, cost effective and created locally considering local requirements. To date, we have rolled out 11 such solutions from India, for India and the world. Today, we are very pleased to roll out two new In India, for India solutions that can address the largest killer disease in India – cardiac disease with improved affordability! The new MAC 600 and VIVID P3 cardiac solutions reinforce our healthymagination commitment to the world.
GE Healthcare’s In India, for India strategy came into effect in 2007 and has till date rolled out 11 solutions developed in India, for India and the world that can tremendously increase affordable healthcare access. GE Healthcare expects to take cardiac care closer to the doorstep of people with these new range of cardiac solutions developed in India. GE Healthcare has partnered with Indian healthcare experts to develop in-person training courses on ECG and ultrasound. However, mass-scale training is the need of the day in order to arm our 700,000 allopath doctors in the fight against cardiac disease.
Mr. V Raja - President & CEO, GE Healthcare, India said, “We are taking a big bold step today with an aim to equip every primary physician in the country in the war against cardiac disease. We plan to roll out a free, mass-scale online ECG training for primary care physicians in India as well as enhance our reach in tier II and III towns. With ECG training and affordable innovations like GE MAC and VIVID cardiac ultrasound systems, healthcare providers are better prepared for early detection and cost effective treatment of cardiac disease!”
About GE Healthcare:
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance solutions services help our customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In addition, we partner with healthcare leaders, striving to leverage the global policy change necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable healthcare systems.
Our “healthymagination” vision for the future invites the world to join us on our journey as we continuously develop innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality around the world. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employees are committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at http://www.gehealthcare.com/
