GE Healthcare Unveils New Medical Imaging Equipment
Here is a great article from Milwaukee’s Journal Sentinel about one of GE’s latest advancements in MRI equipment.
When General Electric Co. announced a plan three months ago to expand the global presence of its medical technology division, it was unclear how it would affect the thousands of GE employees in southeastern Wisconsin.
GE, after all, had been cutting jobs in metro Milwaukee during the recession even as it touted its labs in China and India as new drivers of innovation.
On Tuesday, however, GE Healthcare Ltd. will roll out the next generation of high-end medical imaging equipment that primarily was developed in metro Milwaukee and will be built in Waukesha.
“The fact that we’ve continued to invest in innovation through this downturn is a big statement,” said Omar Ishrak, president and chief executive of GE Healthcare’s medical hardware operations.
GE on Monday gave a preview of its magnetic resonance imaging equipment that includes a new feature: The tube, which narrowly fits an average-sized patient on a sliding table, has been widened enough to accommodate obese patients and those with claustrophobia.
Those two reasons make it difficult or impossible for one in five U.S. patients to use conventional MRI machines, said Jim Davis, who heads GE’s global magnetic resonance business. Some claustrophobic patients need to be sedated before the physician slides them into the tight space, where they otherwise feel trapped for a procedure that often lasts 45 minutes, Davis said.
GE hailed the wider tube as a major engineering feat. Narrow MRI tubes are standard because images have higher quality if the super-conductivity magnets, which create the magnetic field that produce the image, are as close as possible to the patient. The new machines, however, do not compromise image quality, Davis said.
GE employed hundreds of engineers - most of them in southeastern Wisconsin - for two years to redesign the magnets and electronics, company officials said. Among the different kinds of imaging equipment - including ultrasound and CT scans - magnetic resonance machines are at the highest end of the price scale, GE said.
The machines will cost about $1.5 million to $1.6 million each, which is roughly the cost of a conventional MRI scanner, and Davis said he expects GE to sell at least 200 in the first year. GE expects the largest markets for the made-in-Waukesha equipment will be the United States and Europe, which have higher proportions of obesity, while Asia has fewer obese people, Ishrak said.
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Tags: GE Healthcare, General Electric, Magnetic Resonance, Medical Equipment, Medical Imaging, MRI, Southwest Medical