The company is subtly re-designing its web presence to emphasize the use of
medical technology in reducing health care costs; Lunar BMD site goes live.

As corporate America strives to integrate new media into its strategic communications, companies are tweeting, blogging, webcasting, and using all sorts of verbs we never heard of only a few years ago.


GE Healthcare's website provides a case study in outreach to its medical professional clients. OEM-watchers may have noticed that the company's web presence has been morphing lately. For instance, when you visit GE Healthcare.com on the web, you're presented with a virtual visit to Healthymagination. That's the umbrella name for the company's $3 billion investment over the next six years in healthcare R&D and lower-cost technologies.

Faced with a challenging economy and urgency to reduce healthcare costs, doctors need a financial as well as a clinical incentive to invest in new technology. GE is making it easy to navigate the web and find ways to do just that.

A good example is the Lunar bone mineral densitometer brand. Much of its new website is already live, with a clear improvement in ease of access. With the new web design, you can get to the Lunar landing page without making the Internet equivalent of a trip to the moon. For faster blast-off, they've also got a vanity URL at gehealthcare.com/whyBMD.

Once there, the message is unmistakable: BMD testing is good for patients and affordable--if not profitable--for doctors. "In addition to the clinical benefits of conveniently providing osteoporosis management to your patients, bone densitometry is an excellent way of adding revenue to your office," the site says. "The breakeven for in-office bone density testing is low, typically between 10-15 patients per month."

In other words, why refer all your patients to someone else for this simple scan, which in many states does not require an X-ray tech to perform? Since osteoporosis is a silent killer and a condition that patients wrongly view as a natural part of aging, referring them elsewhere often means they won't bother to get tested at all. Given that osteoporosis is prevalent, costly, and treatable with bone-boosting drugs, this is an example where more liberal use of technology can save health care costs in the long run.

The National Osteoporosis Foundation reports that the condition is under-recognized and undertreated, which will cost us $23.5 billion by 2025. Since mass screening technologies such as the ultrasound heel exam are inexpensive, it's clear they need to be used more widely. Advanced technologies like digital DXA scanning would be used for patients who are diagnosed, treated, and monitored. Medicare pays for a DXA scan every other year.

The GE Lunar web site will soon add more information about reimbursement and a resource library for health care professionals to further the case for the technology investment in terms of benefits to the patient, and the practice.

Regarding social networking, GE has contracted with an online marketer to create a blog, geadventure.com, which features articles and media about trade show visits, tech expos, and interviews with researchers, GE people and customers. Some You Tube videos from the GE Global Research Center on things like X-ray tubes and organic LEDs will appeal to med techies, like us.

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