WAUKESHA, Wis. - GE Healthcare ultrasound systems for general imaging received the top ranking among nine vendors in a January 2006 Intelligence Report released by MD Buyline, a leading independent healthcare research company.

In a comparison against eight other ultrasound equipment manufacturers, GE earned the top composite rating of 9.2 out of a possible 10, as well as the top scores in the service repair quality (9.4), system performance (9.2), and applications training (9.7) categories. No other vendor received more than one top category score. The MD Buyline ratings are based primarily on user interviews.

"These ratings indicate that customers see the results of our commitment to gold standard products and industry-leading clinical applications and training," said Terri Bresenham, vice president and general manager, diagnostic ultrasound and IT, with GE Healthcare.

Hooman Hakami, VP & GM Clinical Systems Services, added, "The ratings also demonstrate the results of our investment in world-class customer support and service excellence."

GE ultrasound products for general imaging include advanced Voluson 4D systems with Volume Ultrasound capabilities, and the LOGIQ family, ranging from the hand-carried LOGIQ Book to the premium LOGIQ 9 system with SonoErgonomics and new Speckle Reduction Imaging in High Definition (SRI-HD), a real-time software algorithm that suppresses speckle artifact while maintaining true tissue architecture.

MD Buyline (www.mdbuylline.com) based in Dallas, Texas, was founded in 1983 to provide the healthcare industry with independent analysis and reporting to support sound technology and financial decisions. Approximately 3,200 hospitals and 300 healthcare companies subscribe to MD Buyline research services. The firm maintains a comprehensive online database on medical technology and informatics products, prices and performance.
About GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform and treat disease, so their 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 $15 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 43,000 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