GE Medical Imaging Technology to Aid Early Diagnosis of All Competing Olympic Athletes at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
GE caring for more than 10,500 athletes from over 200 countries at
Beijing Games with advanced MRI, ultrasound and ECG technologies
BEIJING--(Business Wire)--
GE Healthcare, the US$17 billion healthcare business of General
Electric Company (GE), is working with medical leaders in the Olympic
Movement to advance the use of innovative medical imaging technologies
to provide insight into athlete health, as well as benefits for the
general public. The company will supply a broad array of medical
technologies, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasound
and electrocardiogram (ECG) to the Olympic Village General Hospital.
In addition, three National Olympic Committees, including China, U.S.
and Spain, and two Sports Federations will use GE Healthcare's compact
ultrasound technology.
In line with GE Healthcare's 'Early Health' vision and its
commitment to sports medicine, these technologies will assess the
cardiovascular and musculoskeletal health of Olympic athletes before,
during and after the Beijing Games.
''At GE Healthcare, when it comes to health and sport, we believe
in saying 'the sooner the better,'" said Joe Hogan, GE Healthcare
President and CEO. ''Athletes push their bodies to the limit everyday,
which deserves and requires vigilant health monitoring. The simplicity
and speed offered by our innovative medical imaging technology helps
clinicians acquire an accurate diagnosis when it's most crucial, early
on. This helps answer the question of whether an athlete can stay in
competition and could mean the difference between winning the gold and
an unnecessary trip to the emergency room.''
Supporting Olympic Games Medical Facilities In and Around Beijing
GE Healthcare will equip the Olympic Village General Hospital,
which will offer comprehensive healthcare for all Olympic athletes and
officials, with 308 MAC 1200 ECGs for use at Olympic venue sites.
Additionally, the hospital will be equipped with the only five
ultrasound systems and two MRI systems available at the Beijing Games.
Throughout Beijing, most of the 24 official Olympic Games
hospitals will be equipped with GE technology providing additional
medical support during the Games to accommodate an influx of more than
one million visitors and journalists to the city's 15.2 million
inhabitants.
''We are confident that the medical services provided at the
Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will provide effective, high-quality
treatment for all teams,'' said Prof. Dai Jianping, Deputy Head of the
Games Services Department of the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee
(BOCOG). ''For most athletes, the Olympic Games is the culmination of
a lifetime of training for what could be a 30-second opportunity to
win a gold medal. In support of these athletes, BOCOG works with the
top leaders in the medical industry, like GE, to provide the very best
equipment, services and care.''
Learning from Olympic Athletes through Medical Research Programs
Continuing efforts begun for the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games,
GE Healthcare is working with the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) on two
clinical research studies using advanced ultrasound. The first program
is a cardiac clinical research study, led by Dr. Malissa Wood at
Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where researchers are
developing a cardiac fitness index that will help trainers and coaches
understand how cardiac adaptations impact performance of
high-endurance athletes. The second program, supported by Dr. Marnix
van Holsbeeck from the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, is
studying how musculoskeletal ultrasound scans can identify weaknesses
in an athlete's musculoskeletal structure before an injury occurs.
''We've been scanning the knees and hips of U.S. Olympic athletes,
looking for asymptomatic lesions,'' said Dr. van Holsbeeck, Division
Head, Musculoskeletal Radiology, Henry Ford Hospital. ''These lesions
might not cause the athlete any pain but damages can be caused by
continuing to train, and that is why it is so important to find the
abnormalities early. The compact ultrasound system can easily travel
with the teams to track and monitor these lesions throughout the
Beijing Games.''
Providing Advanced Technology to National Olympic Committees and
Sports Federations
GE Healthcare is providing advanced imaging technologies to the
following National Olympic Committees and Sports Federations:
The Chinese Olympic Committee (COC) is using two MAC 5500 resting
ECG, one Dash 4000 bed-side monitor and one CASE Cardiac Testing
System (including the T2100 treadmill). Performing regular ECGs on
Chinese Olympic athletes will be an easy, non-invasive way to measure
an athlete's heart beat, establish a baseline and assist physicians in
detecting any possible abnormalities.
The Spanish Olympic Committee, French Judo Federation and Italian
Fencing Federation will utilize the LOGIQ e, GE Healthcare's compact
ultrasound system which has high quality imaging capability, operates
on battery power alone for approximately one hour, and is easily
carried to where it's needed, when it's needed due to its compact
size. Used as first point of care on competing athletes, this tool
will allow clinicians to achieve early diagnosis of athletes' tendon
or ligament injuries.
About GE and the Olympic Games
GE is the exclusive provider of a wide range of innovative
products and services that are integral to staging a successful
Olympic Games. GE works closely with host countries, cities and
organizing committees to provide infrastructure solutions for Olympic
venues including power, lighting, water treatment, transportation and
security, and to supply hospitals with ultrasound and MRI equipment to
help doctors treat athletes. In addition, NBC Universal, a division of
GE, is the exclusive U.S. media partner of the Olympic Games, with its
partnership also extending through 2012. For more information, please
visit www.ge.com/olympicgames.
About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and
services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in
medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics,
patient monitoring systems, performance improvement, drug discovery,
and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians
around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform,
treat and monitor disease, so patients can live their lives to the
fullest.
GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable
healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart
disease, neurological diseases and other conditions earlier. Our
vision for the future is to enable a new "early health" model of care
focused on earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection and
disease prevention. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare
is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE).
Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 47,000 people committed to
serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100
countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website
at www.gehealthcare.com.
On the Web www.ge.com; www.gehealthcare.com
Media Contacts:
GE Healthcare
Arvind Gopalratnam
Arvind.gopalratnam@ge.com
262-501-0777
or
GE Healthcare
Pilar Anton Serrano
Pilar.antonserrano@ge.com
+33665874751
or
Edelman, New York
Lorraine DelliCarpini
lorraine.dellicarpini@edelman.com
212-642-7772
Copyright Business Wire 2008
