NEW ORLEANS -- GE Healthcare featured its innovative technologies that can enable earlier detection, more accurate diagnoses of health conditions, and personalized treatment plans for women who are pregnant or affected by cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, uterine fibroids and other conditions. GE showcased its commitment to the development of devices and services for clinicians and patients in women's health care this week at the 56th Annual Clinical Meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) in New Orleans.

Here's a roundup of their technologies:

GE Ultrasound: Extraordinary vision
With its focus on reproductive medicine, obstetrics, labor & delivery, maternal fetal medicine and gynecology, GE continues to develop a broad selection of ultrasound and IT solutions. Whether clinicians need 2D or 3D/4D ultrasound,
full-size consoles or new generation compact systems, GE offers innovative tools for the smallest private office to the largest hospital networks. GE's advanced ultrasound technology gives clinicians extraordinary imaging capabilities that help them make clinical decisions earlier and with enhanced confidence. Clinical workflow advances on the Voluson systems include automation tools for the acquisition of images used to diagnose fetal heart defects, called Sonography based Volume Computer Aided Diagnosis (SonoVCAD), and another tool for follicular assessment called Sonography based Automated Volume Count (SonoAVC). Advanced imaging capabilities on both the LOGIQ 9 and LOGIQ i systems deliver high-frequency imaging and penetration needed to detect and characterize breast lesions. Viewpoint, a data management solution, makes ultrasound workflow quicker and easier by combining reporting and image capabilities.

Maternal-Fetal Monitoring
New enhancements to GE's leading maternal-fetal monitor series provide more comprehensive perinatal monitoring of mothers and fetuses as they progress through the birthing process. GE is showcasing a new model -- the Corometrics 250cx Series Maternal/Fetal Monitor. The enhanced model features the optional Exergen TAT-5000 Maternal TemporalScannerTM that allows clinicians to obtain maternal temperature using a non-invasive infrared technology that detects heat through the skin surface via an external scanner and the optional Extend-A-ViewTM 15-inch Color Remote Display that provides clinicians access to the same maternal and fetal vital parameters as seen on the bedside monitor. These new options, combined with standard advanced parameters such as Smart BPTM that delays automated non-invasive blood pressure (NIBP) measurement during contractions, and DINAMAP(r) SuperSTATTM NIBP technology that decreases the amount of time required to take the blood pressure of a laboring mother, allow medical facilities to deliver a high-touch experience for every patient from prenatal evaluations to postpartum assessments and every stage in between - including celebrating the birth with a choice of three songs.

Bone Mineral Densitometry: Osteoporosis
When undetected, the bone loss that accompanies osteoporosis, "the silent disease," can have a permanent impact on the overall health of a patient. One in three women, and one in five men over 50 will experience osteoporotic fractures.1,2,3 In women over 45 years of age, osteoporosis accounts for more days spent in hospital than many other diseases, including diabetes, myocardial infarction and breast cancer.4 The good news is that GE Lunar technology can help clinicians prevent and detect osteoporosis. GE Lunar has a broad range of efficient, comprehensive bone mineral density (BMD) and portable bone ultrasonometer solutions that can help clinicians differentiate their practice, helping more patients detect bone loss earlier.

MR-guided Focused Ultrasound: Uterine Fibroid Treatment
GE also showcased the only non-invasive surgical treatment available for uterine fibroids in the United States. GE and InSightec, a company that develops non-invasive therapy systems, developed the world's first magnetic resonance (MR) image guided focused ultrasound system. MRgFUS technology combines MR - to visualize the body anatomy, plan the treatment and monitor treatment outcome in real time - and high intensity focused ultrasound to thermally ablate tumors inside the body non-invasively. InSightec's ExAblate 2000 system, approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in October 2004, works exclusively in combination with GE's Signa MR system to non-invasively treat symptomatic uterine fibroids.

Clinical Education: Fetal Heart Monitoring
The new Electronic Fetal Heart Monitoring Interpretation and Management Education Program can help enhance communication among healthcare providers by promoting standardization of fetal heart monitoring (FHR) definitions and interpretation.

Developed by nationally recognized fetal monitoring experts Frank Miller, M.D.,
FACOG and David Miller, M.D., FACOG, this Web-based, interactive education program reinforces the standardized National Institute of Child Health and Human Development(NICHD) definitions of FHR patterns.

Integrated IT Solutions
In perinatal, technology is crucial for delivering insight to the point of care. GE demo-ed its latest release of Centricity Perinatal (CPN) 6.8, a clinician software package that combines the company's long-time expertise in labor & delivery with enhancements to its neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) capability. As the percentage of babies arriving in NICU continues to rise, CPN 6.8 helps to foster their development with enhanced NICU-specific capabilities, including: Mother-Baby Link, which automatically populates the infant's record with relevant maternal and delivery information; NICU Chalkboards, a quick, dynamically updated unit overview for a simple, yet comprehensive view that can be customized for a variety of purposes; and Advanced Reporting, which generates data that facilitates benchmarking specific to a particular care initiative to enhance unit performance. The solution also completes Perinatal Continuum of Care by making prenatal data from GE Healthcare's Centricity Electronic Medical Record (EMR) located in many private practice environments, available in Centricity Perinatal at the hospital, and closes the loop by sending a delivery summary back to Centricity EMR in the office.

ABOUT GE HEALTHCARE
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Their 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. GE's 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 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit www.gehealthcare.com.

References:
1. Melton LJ, 3rd, Atkinson EJ, O'Connor MK, et al. (1998) Bone density and fracture
risk in men. J Bone Miner Res 13:1915.
2. Melton LJ, 3rd, Chrischilles EA, Cooper C, et al. (1992) Perspective. How many
women have osteoporosis? J Bone Miner Res 7:1005.
3. Kanis JA, Johnell O, Oden A, et al. (2000) Long-term risk of osteoporotic
fracture in Malmo. Osteoporos Int 11:669.
4. Kanis JA, Delmas P, Burckhardt P, et al. (1997) Guidelines for diagnosis and
management of osteoporosis. The European Foundation for Osteoporosis and Bone
Disease. Osteoporos Int 7:390.