GE Unveils New Products at Hospitalar

For the most part, GE Healthcare’s trade show displays are both simple and resourceful. Sometimes, however, simplicity takes a backseat to showmanship.

Take Hospitalar 2012, for instance. In a rare stray from its customary no-frills booth, GE’s base at the four-day medical device/hospital equipment conference in São Paulo, Brazil, featured a highly-polished floor, a steady stream of visitors, carefully-crafted product displays, and a large illuminated nameplate (which, along with other brightly-lit company logos, created a Broadway-like atmosphere in the various exhibit halls).

It also included a mock hospital, complete with life-sustaining equipment and true-to-life wards (including the Intensive Care Unit, Operating Room, Cardiac Center, Neonatal and Childbirth, and Home Care solutions). The only missing link was the patients themselves.

GE used its bogus hospital to both display its various product lines and launch new devices. At the fake “Surgery Center,” for instance, the global healthcare conglomerate showcased its drug-delivery-analyzing Navigator software suite, the S/5 Aespire 7900 SmartVent ventilator, and the Venue 40, a portable, miniaturized ultrasound system that enables doctors to perform rapid diagnostics and needle-guided procedures at patients’ bedsides.

Executives manning the Surgery Center also touted the benefits of the economical 9100c anesthesia machine, a low-cost device designed specifically for poorer patients in rural areas (Brazil has a sizable population of impoverished residents—nearly 25 percent of its inhabitants are considered low-income, according to market research). The 9100c machine can both deliver an anesthetic and mechanically ventilate a patient during surgery.

Anesthesiologists of the non-mechanical kind received an education in Et Control for GE’s Aisys Carestation. Et Control is an optional gas delivery mode that enables clinicians to set target EtO2 and EtAA values. The system constantly monitors patients’ EtO2 and EtAA values and automatically adjusts both the gas delivery and total flow to achieve and maintain the set target values, according to GE. Built-in safeguards help protect against over-delivery and under-delivery of agent and hypoxia.

The Surgery Center was perhaps the busiest of GE’s mock wards, thanks to the launch of a disposable circuit system that connects patients to a machine that exchanges carbon dioxide for oxygen. The tube keeps the heat at 3 degrees and helps prevent infections.

Adding to the Surgery Center’s harried pace was the Brazilian re-launch of the OEC 9800 Plus C-arm, which has sold more than 11,000 units worldwide. The system—which GE claims is both clinically versatile and reliable—can be used by healthcare practitioners in endovascular, pain management and orthopedic procedures.

The OEC 9800 is not the only C-arm option for orthopedic surgeons, though. GE also had on hand its Brivo OEC 850, a lightweight device that features sharp images, a low radiation dose, an integrated UPS to protect patient data and clinical images, and rotations (both lateral and orbital) that enable X-ray beam centralization.

Surgeons interested in hybrid operating rooms, meanwhile, were drawn to the company’s OEC 990 Elite, which offers quality image resolution in cardiovascular surgery and advanced vascular procedures. In rooms where surgery and minimally invasive procedures are performed simultaneously, the OEC 990 offers clinicians new formats for image distribution and flexibility in the use of space.

A similar show-and tell dichotomy existed in GE’s mock ICU, where “doctors” in business suits demonstrated the Respirator 101, a device with invasive ventilation (intubated) and non- invasive options (without intubation). Designed for both hospital and home use, the Respirator 101 features an advanced monitoring system, on-board graphics and a color touchscreen. The respirator also is autonomous in air, meaning it can provide mobility in emergency, semi-intensive and intensive care situations.

ICU “workers” debuted two new monitors during Hospitalar—the ProCare B20 (featuring a 10.4-inch screen) and the B40 (containing a 12.1-inch screen). Both new devices can monitor all patient types. Also making its first appearance at the show was the Engstrom ICU mechanical ventilator, a machine with a color touchscreen that can export data to a computer and ICU system.

Other equipment on display in the ICU were the MAC 600, a portable electrocardiograph with three-channel printing and the Responder 2000, a defibrillator with built-in adult and pediatric paddles.

Over in Cardiology, executives spent much of their day demonstrating the various types of equipment, including the Holter Mars, the MAC 800, the Vivid line of electrocardiographs and the Tonoport V.

The Holter Mars is a high-performance arrhythmias review system with three channels for acquisition, up to 12 derivations with simultaneous trends on screen, and visualization of electrode contact quality.

The CASE and CardioSoft computer software systems deliver highly scalable multifunctional solutions for stress and resting electrocardiograms as well as for ambulatory blood pressure and spirometry. All systems can be networked and configured to meet various information management requirements.

The MAC 800, a portable electrocardiograph device with six channels and 12 derivations, features simultaneous acquisition capability and a 7-inch color screen. The machine was used to help care for athletes during the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

The Tonoport V is an automatic non-invasive pressure meter with configurable protocols. It can analyze data obtained by CardioSoft and captures data through sequential or random intervals. The system has memory for up to 30 hours or 200 measurements, and calculates pulse pressure.