COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 26, 2005--GE Healthcare (NYSE:GE):
-- GE to Provide Portable Ultrasound Systems to Medical Clinics at the U.S. Olympic Training Centers
-- Massachusetts General Hospital to Use GE Ultrasound Technology to Study Speedskaters' Hearts
-- Henry Ford Health System to Use GE Ultrasound Technology to Study Benefits of Imaging U.S. Women's Ice Hockey Players; Researchers to Explore New Injury Assessment Methods
The U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) and the General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), a Worldwide Partner of the Olympic Games, announced today three initiatives aimed at revolutionizing athlete medical care and discovering healthcare benefits for the general public. The first initiative gives U.S. Olympic Committee medical staff and athletes access to state-of-the-art, portable ultrasound technology. The other two initiatives are clinical research studies involving U.S. Olympic athletes and hopefuls: one focused on gaining new insight into techniques for diagnosing and treating heart disease and the other on musculoskeletal (shoulder and knee) injury assessment.
GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company, will provide three LOGIQ Book XP ultrasound systems and technical training to the chief medical officers and their athletic training staffs at the U.S. Olympic Training Centers' clinics in Colorado Springs, Colo.; Lake Placid, N.Y.; and Chula Vista, Calif. The systems and training will enable the USOC to incorporate cutting edge imaging services into its sports medicine programs for U.S. Olympic athletes and hopefuls.
"The ability to assess athlete injuries immediately through graphic, moving ultrasound images, and to learn more about heart capacity through the cardiovascular research will be a huge advantage to U.S. Olympians and hopefuls in their training and competition," said Ed Ryan, U.S. Olympic Committee Director of Sports Medicine. "GE's new technology will allow us to support our athletes better than ever before. There's no question that ultrasound technology will become a standard tool in healthcare for athletes."
Studying Speedskaters' Heart Images to Help Medical Experts Target New Patient Therapies
A clinical study of U.S. Short Track Speedskaters, led by Michael H. Picard and Malissa Wood, of the Massachusetts General Hospital Heart Center in Boston, will use GE's new Vivid i - the world's most advanced miniaturized cardiovascular ultrasound system - to examine athletes' hearts pre- and post competition in an effort to learn more about the function and performance of highly-conditioned hearts. The research team will compare the heart performance of the speedskaters with that of long-distance athletes such as marathoners and rowers, as well as patients with heart disease. This comparison will allow Drs. Picard and Wood to explore new therapies for people with heart disease, as well as those recovering from heart attacks or heart surgeries.
"This study is the first-of-its-kind to investigate the cardiovascular effects of rest and activity of both short- and long-range athletes who follow fundamentally different training regimes," said Dr. Picard. "We hope that our findings will enable new methods for more precise diagnosis of heart disease in everyone from Olympic athletes to the patients we see everyday."
GE's Vivid i ultrasound system offers the functionality and high performance of larger-scale systems, but in a portable and wireless design that weighs only 10 pounds. The system makes it possible for patients to receive full diagnostic exams anywhere, as opposed to being transported to an imaging lab in a hospital. In addition, physicians can wirelessly transfer files from the system to other physicians for instant consultation.
Research on U.S. Women's Ice Hockey Players Help Medical Researchers Pioneer New Methods for Assessing Injuries
The second clinical study, led by Marnix T. van Holsbeeck and Scott A. Dulchavsky of Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, will center on improving the speed and efficiency of diagnosing musculoskeletal injuries in the shoulder and knee. Researchers will investigate, over the course of a year, whether taking healthy baseline scans of the U.S. Women's Ice Hockey Team helps in determining the extent of future sports injuries with greater speed and accuracy.
In this study, researchers will use GE's LOGIQ Book XP, a lightweight, portable ultrasound system that enables real-time diagnosis anywhere - even the ice rink or locker room. Designed for a modern, all-digital healthcare environment, LOGIQ Book XP allows clinicians to share information for consultation and to archive results electronically. U.S. Olympic Committee medical staff will have these systems on-hand at events prior to and during the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Italy.
According to Dr. Dulchavsky, it is always a challenge to evaluate injuries in the field.
"Having a healthy baseline scan of common injury sites, such as the shoulder and knee, as well as portable ultrasound technology on-site, could be a step that fundamentally improves our ability to care for athletes' injuries. Our study with the female ice hockey players could ultimately be applied to any sport - benefiting athletes from any sport or skill level," said Dulchavsky.
Both clinical studies will begin in September with initial results expected early in 2006. GE expects to conduct similar athlete research programs in other countries later this year.
"GE's innovation in imaging and miniaturization is allowing ultrasound to play an increasingly important role in the early detection and diagnosis of many prevalent health issues, including heart disease, cancer, and fetal defects," said Omar Ishrak, president and CEO of GE Healthcare's Clinical Systems division. "We are particularly excited about our collaboration with leading medical experts and the U.S. Olympic Committee to further improve patient care for everyone."
About GE and the Olympic Games
As a Worldwide Partner of the Olympic Games, GE is the exclusive provider of a wide range of innovative products and services that are integral to a successful Games. From providing power, lighting, security and modular space solutions at Olympic venues to supplying ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment to help doctors treat athletes, GE works closely with the Organizing Committees, local municipalities and other Olympic Partners to understand their needs and deliver solutions that only GE can. NBC Universal, a division of GE, is the exclusive U.S. media partner of the Olympic Games. The GE and NBC Universal partnerships extend through 2012.
About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies that are shaping a new age of patient care. GE Healthcare's expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring and life support systems, disease research, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping physicians detect disease earlier and to tailor personalized treatments for patients. GE Healthcare offers a broad range of products and services that are improving productivity in healthcare and enhancing patient care by enabling healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases, and other conditions.
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.
On the Web
www.usolympicteam.com; www.usocpressbox.org; www.ge.com; www.gehealthcare.com
Contacts
GE Healthcare
Annette Busateri, 262-548-2577
[email protected]
or
U.S. Olympic Committee
Cheryl Herbert, 719-866-4566
[email protected]