GE Annual Report 2000: Business Review: Medical Systems




			Medical Systems Web Site


			GE's Catalyst™ cardiovascular information system is designed to provide cardiologists with complete access to cardiac patient information in just minutes, helping to increase the productivity of cardiology departments and improve the care of patients.

Driven by a passion to serve our customers, GE Medical Systems recorded another record year in 2000, with strong double-digit revenue and earnings growth.

The success of healthcare providers today is based on improving patient outcomes while reducing overall operating costs. By taking Six Sigma to our healthcare customers, we have introduced an important catalyst to help them with this challenge. We have completed more than 1,000 Six Sigma projects "at the customer, for the customer." These are projects aimed at improving patient throughput and reducing variability in healthcare delivery. These projects generated more than $100 million in benefits for our customers in 2000.

GE Medical Systems also introduced 22 Designed for Six Sigma (DFSS) products in 2000. Most significant among them were the Senographe® and Innova™ proprietary digital x-ray systems that will revolutionize breast cancer detection and interventional cardiac imaging. In total, more than 50% of our sales will come from DFSS products in 2001.

Digitization has transformed the way GE Medical Systems operates. We will purchase more than $2 billion online annually by the end of 2001, resulting in lower costs and a leaner supply chain. Internal digitization will allow us to simplify our "backroom operations," freeing up more resources to invest in our customers. By the end of 2001, we will have more than 8,000 systems in our installed base with Internet connectivity. This will improve customer workflow by offering online customer education, customer productivity data, software and application updates, and transactions.

Our services business reached $3 billion in sales in 2000. QuantaCare™ offerings that provide a full array of Internet-based customer productivity, Six Sigma and maintenance tools now represent 80% of our new service contracts. Our Healthcare Information Technologies business grew by nearly 30% in 2000 and has installations in more than 1,000 hospitals.

Globalization is a central part of our growth strategy. We experienced double-digit gains in every region of the world, and we have achieved strong growth in the Americas, Asia and many parts of Europe. We are accelerating the momentum of our Global Products Company, which has resulted in nearly half of our products being designed and manufactured in global platforms, including India, China, Mexico, Israel and Hungary. We are leveraging every "global brain" in GE Medical Systems to become No. 1 with the customer around the world.

Acquisitions continue to enhance our growth. The acquisition, in 1999, of OEC Medical Systems has strengthened our position in the fast-growing interventional imaging segments. Our Women's Healthcare position was strengthened by the acquisition of Lunar, an innovator in the field of osteoporosis screening. The additions of Magnex, Parallel Design and SMV enhance our global product lines in CT, MR, ultrasound and nuclear medicine.

GE Medical Systems is a business with unlimited potential. Healthcare customers need long-term partners who can deliver new technology and quality solutions that are so vital to their competitiveness. We will continue to attract the world's best people and instill in them a passion for our customers' success. As we look to the future, we are embracing a dynamic new digital business model, which enables GE Medical Systems to become even faster and closer to our customers.

www.gemedicalsystems.com