GE Healthcare expands ecomagination product portfolio, adds Centricity Enterprise EMR solution

GE HealthcareFeb 3 2010

GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), today announced that it has expanded its portfolio of ecomagination products aimed at helping healthcare companies and hospitals reduce cost and waste while positively impacting the environment. The GE ecomagination portfolio of more than 85 products now includes two new healthcare products and three product categories, including the Centricity Enterprise Electronic Medical Record (EMR) solution.

“We’re committed to building a strong portfolio of products that meet both the ecomagination environmental performance standards and the needs of our customers around the globe”

Rising energy costs and heightened concern for the environmental consequences of energy consumption and resource use have driven the need for high quality, efficient technology in healthcare. In order to be recognized as an ecomagination offering, each product had to complete a rigorous review process of the operating and environmental performance improvements it delivers to customers.

“We’re committed to building a strong portfolio of products that meet both the ecomagination environmental performance standards and the needs of our customers around the globe,” said John Dineen, President and CEO of GE Healthcare. “Our expanding portfolio confirms our commitment to finding innovative solutions that tackle energy use and waste reduction, both of which also reduce cost in the system.”

Newly approved categories and products:

• GE Healthcare's Centricity Enterprise software solution is an integrated clinical, financial and administrative Electronic Medical Record (EMR) solution that assists hospitals in saving lives, time and money. By recording patient demographic and clinical information electronically, the solution makes this information more accessible to clinicians and can help reduce costs, improve productivity, and eliminate or reduce the number of forms that comprise a patient's medical record—reducing the amount of paper used, stored and ultimately sent to landfills.
• By employing efficient gradient and electronics design as well as innovative water-cooling technology, the high efficiency family of magnetic resonance (MR) systems from GE is among the most energy efficient 1.5T MR systems, using about 34 percent less energy than previous generation systems. The high efficiency family of GE’s MR systems includes Optima MR360, Brivo MR355, and Signa HD 1.5T.
• By replacing analog film and film processing with digital images, the GE Digital Mammography Platform offers significant advantages over traditional analog mammography including improved throughput, less waste and reduced energy, water, and chemicals use. For example, replacing an analog mammography system that processes 27,400 films per year with a GE digital mammography system can eliminate the need to store (and ultimately landfill) more than 890 lbs (400 kg) of film annually.
• GE’s WAVE Bioreactor system, used for vaccine and other biotherapeutics production, enables cell culturing without requiring cleaning or steam sterilization by using disposable bags rather than large stainless steel tanks. This reduces water and energy consumption - and staff time requirements - compared to the stainless steel bioreactor it replaces. GE's WAVE Bioreactor system reduces annual energy consumption for users by up to 43 percent.
• GE Healthcare's +PLUSPAKTM polymer bottle for contrast media offers significant advantages over traditional glass packaging, including less cost for waste disposal, reduced storage, and improved workplace safety for healthcare workers who administer contrast media to patients. +PLUSPAKTM polymer bottle achieves these benefits through its patented design and pharmaceutical grade polypropylene composition, which result in smaller, lighter, and safer packaging than glass. By using the GE Healthcare +PLUSPAK(TM) polymer bottle, a radiology department can reduce the weight of its contrast media red bag waste by more than 75 percent.

GE ecomagination approval

The ecomagination Product Review (EPR) process provides a third-party verification of claims, quantifying operating and environmental performance benefits that accrue to GE’s customers by using ecomagination products relative to baselines such as competitors' best products, the installed base of products and regulatory standards. These ecomagination claims can be found in GE's printed materials and advertisements and on the Web at www.ge.com/ecomagination. Ecomagination products are re-approved regularly to help ensure that claims remain accurate.