The GE Brief: February 11, 2021

SOUND INVENTION
 
Dr. Leigh Ann Cashwell, a diagnostic radiologist from Lucedale, Mississippi, was examining her 15-year-old son, Luke, with a GE handheld ultrasound system called Vscan Extend, when she noticed something wrong with his thyroid. “I immediately knew that there was nothing normal about what I was looking at,” she says. Lab testing confirmed her suspicion: Luke had an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks the thyroid. While Cashwell’s story is every parent’s worst nightmare, this one had a happier ending. Luke was able to get treatment for his thyroid condition. “It was an absolute blessing that we were able to find this and get it fixed so quickly so he can live a healthy, normal life,” Cashwell says.
 
Magic wand: The American Academy of Family Physicians refers to point-of-care ultrasound as “the biggest advance in bedside diagnosis since the advent of the stethoscope 200 years ago.” But handheld ultrasound isn’t just for primary care settings. Doctors use the devices throughout the hospital, including in the ICU and the oncology unit. And it’s played a role throughout the pandemic: Clinicians around the world are using the Vscan Extend to quickly monitor the lungs and heart of COVID-19 patients. With the addition of AI software, Vscan Extend can also be used to evaluate patients’ hearts for risk of heart failure. “Handheld ultrasound facilitates early and reliable diagnosis,” says Dr. Francis Pellet, a general practitioner at Leopold Ollier Medical Station — Les Vans in France.
 
Click here to learn more about the use of handheld ultrasound devices.

THE INVENTOR’S INVENTOR
 
Today is National Inventors’ Day, and it’s no coincidence that it’s also the birthday of one Thomas Edison, GE co-founder and proud son of Milan, Ohio, where Edison entered the world on Feb. 11, 1847. Over the course of his career, Edison racked up an eye-popping 1,093 U.S. patents, covering everything from film to sound to light to materials science. Little-known fact: Edison also supplied cement for the original Yankees Stadium and made talking “little monster” dolls.
 
Generally electrifying: Not all projects were winners. Edison sold his GE stock and invested the proceeds into an iron ore business that went bust. “Well, it’s all gone, but we had a hell of a good time spending it,” he reportedly quipped. But one thing about Edison’s technology is that it keeps coming back into vogue. His ore crushers went on to power a cement business, an electric pen found a new life as a tattoo needle, and power transmission technology — he built the first U.S. grid near Wall Street in Manhattan — is helping bring more renewables online. Descendants of Edison’s inventions have also made their way into healthcare imaging, jet engines and the future of manufacturing.
 
Learn more here.

NATIONAL ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING
 
On top of National Inventors' Day and Edison’s birthday, today is also the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. As it happens, two days ago the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) also elected four new members from GE, including Jeanne Rosario and Hao Huang (retired) from GE Aviation, Peter Bernard Roemer (retired) from GE Healthcare, and Danielle Merfeld, above, from GE Renewable Energy. Merfeld is the co-leader of GE’s global Women’s Network, which works to nurture leadership skills in the engineering and technology fields for the 70,000 women within the company. In addition to serving as vice president and chief technology officer for Renewable Energy, she’s a big advocate for girls and women in professional and educational STEM programs.
 
Great honor: Election to the NAE is one of the highest professional distinctions that an engineer can attain. Members of the newly elected class will be formally inducted at the academy’s annual meeting on Oct. 3.
 
Read more about the NAE’s newly elected members here.

— QUOTE OF THE DAY —

“Throughout a recent experience with handheld ultrasound I kept thinking to myself, ‘What an advantage it is for primary care doctors to have a technology like this.' Incorporating handheld ultrasound in a typical physical exam could help them quickly see things that could otherwise be missed.”

— Dr. Leigh Ann Cashwell, diagnostic radiologist at George Regional Hospital in Lucedale, Mississippi

Quote: GE Reports. Images: GE Healthcare, Museum of Innovation and Science Schenectady, GE.