GE to Invest Heavily in Low-Dose Imaging Technology

Demonstrating a continued commitment to patient care, GE Healthcare announced a $300 million investment in low-dose technologies and unveiled an array of radiation-dose management offerings this week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.

Representing more than $800 million of investment over 11 years, GE Healthcare’s technologies redefine “low dose” with dose-reporting solutions, image reconstruction techniques, Dose Check upgrades, free iPad apps and online courses, and a new informational website, which together help physicians provide patients with dose-conscious care, according to the company.

GE Healthcare’s low-dose vision builds on its experience in equipping radiologists and technologists with technologies that help them reduce patient dose and improve image quality. These solutions, detailed on the company’s new Responsible Imaging website (www.gehealthcare.com/ResponsibleImaging), include:

• DoseWatch, a novel multi-modality dose monitoring solution;
• Veo, an image reconstruction technology that improves computed tomography (CT) imaging clarity (under 1 millisievert);
• Dose-alert upgrades that go further across the installed base;
• Free radiation safety iPad apps and low-dose webinars offering education and CE credits to healthcare professionals globally;
• Innova interventional imaging systems designed to maximize dose efficiency, reduce dose and simplify dose management; and
• Low-dose ASiR technology, available across the GE Healthcare CT portfolio and used on more than 1,000 systems for more than 10 million patient exams to date.

“Medical imaging has been indispensible in helping physicians diagnose disease and has positively affected millions of lives,” said Tom Gentile, president and CEO of Healthcare Systems at GE Healthcare. “GE’s commitment to patient care means equipping our customers with tools that help them provide the highest level of care and diagnostic accuracy while striving for the lowest possible dose.”

Impacting Patients, One Exam at a Time
GE’s new dose-tracking and reporting solution, DoseWatch, helps healthcare facilities analyze patient exposure levels over time, which in turn can impact the quality of care provided by doctors. Supplementing existing dose awareness technologies, DoseWatch captures standardized dose information on CT, interventional, mammography and X-ray systems from various equipment vendors. The dose alert technology is being integrated on new and existing GE CT systems.

Empowering Physicians, One Procedure at a Time
The Innova family of single and biplane imaging systems offers excellent image quality with Detective Quantum Efficiency for a wide range of interventional procedures, GE executives claim. An integral component of these products is the ability to optimize the radiation dose based on the needs of the patient, helping to enable clinicians to achieve the appropriate balance of radiation exposure and image quality in interventional care.

Informing Medical Professionals
Complementing classroom-setting low dose CT Masters Series educational courses, GE now offers free CT Low Dose Webinars at http://www.gehealthcare.com/ctedu/dosewebinar globally. These expert-led forums are approved by the American Society of Radiologic Technologists for Category A Continuing Education credits.

GE’s Brilliant program is designed to help mobile C-arm users manage radiation dose while producing optimum images to improve patient care. The educational program, which complements the company’s existing customer training offerings and dose reduction product features, includes C-arm dose management classes, an iPad application and reference tools. Since its introduction about last year, more than 2,000 people have downloaded the OEC Radiation Safety iGuide app.

Redefining Low Dose CT
Veo is the CT industry’s first Model-Based Iterative Reconstruction technology, which produces high-quality images at CT low-dose levels. Veo has sub-mSv capabilities that help deliver confident diagnosis—potentially enabling lower noise (standard deviation), improved low contrast detectability and spatial resolution, and fewer low signal artifacts, executives claim.