Leading Indian and International luminaries to debate impact of changing the focus of healthcare delivery from treating late stage chronic diseases to earlier prediction and diagnosis
September 26, 2007 --- GE Healthcare, the US$17 billion complete healthcare and life sciences solutions business of global major General Electric Company (GE), is hosting its first Indian media summit in New Delhi, spotlighting the country's healthcare needs and rise in lifestyle diseases. With the prospect of the increasing impact of healthcare and associated costs on the growth of the Indian economy, GE Healthcare has come forward to promote the concept of "Early Health" in India.
Over 100 delegates comprising leading medical luminaries and media representatives will join GE Healthcare to discuss the medical and economic benefits of evolving medicine and patient care from treating symptomatic 'late-stage' disease to a focus on earlier pre-symptomatic detection and intervention.
Highlighting the importance of the "Early Health" concept to India, its potential impact on the economy, and the healthcare challenges and trends the country is facing, the summit specifically focuses on healthcare economics, advances in molecular imaging and other innovations in fighting cancer and cardiovascular disease.
V. Raja, President and CEO, GE Healthcare South Asia, said "Considering the increasing incidence of cancer and lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and heart disease in India, early detection becomes extremely important. Catching these chronic high-cost diseases early, instead of late as we do now, will have a critical impact on healthcare providers and the economy as a whole, but most importantly on patients' lives.
"The loss of national income due to cardiac disease, cancer and diabetes was US$9 billion in 2005. The WHO estimates it will be $237 billion by 2015. GE's Early Health approach encourages healthcare providers and the public to consider shifting their focus from late disease to early detection and diagnosis, and we are developing more and more products in India for India, adapting solutions to local needs and improving access to healthcare," V Rajah said.
"We need to ensure that people are healthy, live long, produce wealth and shake off the tag of a 'high risk country," V. Raja said. "This will help India to reap the benefits of its current growth and become an economic powerhouse by 2020."
Healthcare experts participating at the summit include: Mr. Ali Mehdi, Research Associate, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER); Dr. Ritu Biyani, Dental Surgeon; Dr. Roxy Senior, Director of Cardiac Research, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, North West London Hospitals NHS Trust, UK; Dr Ajai Kumar, Chairman Healthcare Global Enterprises, Bangalore.
About GE Healthcare GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our 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 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 US$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 our website at www.gehealthcare.com.
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