Building on the foundation of the industry-leading Xeleris workstation, GE Healthcare has introduced Xeleris 2, an advanced nuclear medicine review workstation. A highlight of the new system is XFL (Xeleris Floating License), which allows in nuclear medicine the ability for clinicians to read and process NM images from their own PCs throughout the institution.

Recently installed at Aultman Hospital, Canton, Ohio, Xeleris 2 with the XFL option is helping Aultman reshape its commitment to improving health by providing high-quality healthcare to the surrounding communities in Stark County.

Innovative in its design, Xeleris 2 enables virtually all of a department's nuclear medicine imaging systems to connect to a single workstation, further accelerating the entire imaging process. This is made possible by GE's exclusive DirectConnects feature, which standardizes reading tools and calculation methods for different makes and generations of nuclear medicine equipment.

"Xeleris fulfills Aultman's clinical needs by providing a single seamless processing platform to use with numerous vendors in our department, including PET and reprocessing from PACS," said Elizabeth Getz, vice president of radiology, Aultman Hospital. The workstation was installed at the beginning of this year and has been used by radiologists throughout the hospital with the XFL option. "The XFL software allows our department to have the option to place multiple workstations at key processing centers," Getz added.

Featuring a user-friendly and intuitive user interface, Xeleris 2 simplifies workflow for clinicians by allowing the replacement and removal of many competitive devices. One of the industry's fastest functional imaging workstations available, the Xeleris 2 also modernizes older GE nuclear medicine cameras, adding newer and more efficient applications and serviceability tools while maintaining compatibility with old peripherals and archive media.

"Xeleris has improved efficiency by enabling the physician and technologist to process at one workstation instead of having multiple specialized workstations," explained Sherri Cole, radiology unit director, Aultman Hospital. "All studies are on the same workstation - PET, heart and bone scans - simplifying processing with more accurate motion correction, MUGA uniformity and processing consistency."

Additionally, the workstation's Multimedia Creator provides a quick and easy way to provide an electronic record of the patient procedure on CD, Network, or e-mail for sharing results with family or referring physicians. "With this tool, Aultman can better serve the clinical staff and referring physicians by giving them a shorter report turn around time, and easier access to viewing cases," Cole added.

With GE selected as Aultman's preferred NM vendor, the facility benefits from a windows-based platform, providing the advantage of seamless connectivity for pulling patient exams from the PACS archive and more efficient reprocessing of images. The result has been improved workflow, greater technologist and radiologist efficiency and enhanced service for the patient and referring clinician.

Aultman recently opened its expansion and modernization project, Aultman 2010, expanding the hospital's capabilities for inpatient and outpatient services while further accommodating the changing needs of the community. The nuclear medicine department, with Xeleris 2, will serve the Aultman Heart Center, which will open later this spring.

A testament to the clinical success of Xeleris is the recently 6,000th shipment. "The 6,000th shipped milestone for Xeleris is a testament to the workstation's superior integration and connectivity capabilities, second to none in the industry," said Hadi Moufarrej, global general manager of molecular imaging at GE Healthcare. "These features, coupled with unmatched productivity capabilities, increase the overall workflow for the department and physicians. Perhaps most important, Xeleris lays the groundwork for future implementation of the personalized healthcare model."

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.