GE Healthcare
PRESS RELEASE
University of Wisconsin to License their Clinically Developed, Doseoptimized CT Scan Protocols to GE Healthcare
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GE Healthcare continues its leadership in radiation dose reduction with updated status of Blueprint for Lower Dose
program
GE Healthcare launches low radiation dose image contest
CHICAGO — November 28, 2012 — Today at RSNA 2012, GE Healthcare (NYSE: GE) continued to lead the way in dosereduction offerings with the announcement of a first-of-its-kind agreement with the University of Wisconsin School of
Medicine and Public Health with the purpose of providing physicians with more tools to optimize radiation dose, take
clinically-useful images, and potentially reduce the frequency of repeat Computed Tomography (CT) scans. Clinical
professionals at the School of Medicine and Public Health, a recognized leader in lower-dose CT imaging, will develop a
suite of protocols, which will be regularly updated and improved, and GE Healthcare will make them available, along with
GE Healthcare reference protocols, to better serve its customers. GE Healthcare and the University of Wisconsin also plan
to make these protocols available to users of many of GE Healthcare’s current CT systems.
“We are excited to share our protocols with current and future GE Healthcare CT users,” said Dr. Myron Pozniak, Professor
of Radiology and Chief of the Section of Abdominal CT, UW-Madison. “At the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine
and Public Health, we’ve built a rigorous process for protocol development and quality control, and these protocols will be
the result of that process.”
The protocols are being designed and optimized for multiple, very specific, clinical applications. Within each clinical
application, the UW team plans to develop several protocols for patients of different sizes ranging from small children to
large adults. The agreement also calls for the School of Medicine and Public Health to continue to develop and improve the
protocols so that end users would receive regular updates as improvements are made.
“We see this agreement as providing the option for our customers to have another comprehensive, robust set of protocols,
which are developed by a recognized clinical leader in lower-dose CT imaging, available when their new GE Healthcare CT
system is delivered,” said Steve Gray, vice president and general manager of GE Healthcare’s CT and Advantage
Workstation businesses. “To know that these new protocols are being developed by a top-notch CT imaging program, and
that they can expect to receive updates as the University of Wisconsin continuously improves them, we think is a big
advantage and potential time saver for our customers.”
In addition to clinical and lower dose opportunities of these protocols, there is a potential real savings to end-users.
According to a presentation from the William W. Backus hospital at the 2011 annual meeting of the RSNA, the cost of
reviewing and modifying 30 protocols for dose optimization is approximately $165,050 a year. Each site would still be
ultimately responsible for any protocol implemented in their program, but they may be able to leverage the foundational
ground work UW-Madison has laid.
Patient Care Update
Customers around the U.S. continue to show substantial interest in GE Healthcare’s Blueprint for Lower Dose Benchmark
program, which was launched in June 2012. GE worked with four leading health systems to pilot the program for CT. A
number of health systems have requested the Benchmark and GE has begun working with these systems to schedule a CT
Benchmark at their facilities.
Through its GE Blueprint initiative, GE Healthcare supports healthcare providers’ goals of a comprehensive, programmatic
approach to radiation dose management. The Blueprint Benchmark can help a healthcare provider understand the
strengths and opportunities within its CT imaging program as compared to industry guidelines and best and better
practices. Based on information provided by the healthcare provider, GE’s Low Dose Architects provide a report that can
serve as a “blueprint” for the healthcare provider as it works to put in place the people, processes and technology to define
GE Healthcare
and enhance their radiation dose management goals.
In addition to the Blueprint, GE Healthcare’s lower-dose vision builds on its decades-long leadership in equipping
radiologists and radiographers with technologies that can help them reduce patient dose and improve image quality. These
solutions include: ASiR*, a lower dose image reconstruction technology enabler, installed on more than 1,800 GE CT
systems worldwide that has provided more than 20 million scans to date†.; Veo*, the world’s first ever model based
iterative reconstruction that enables CT imaging under 1 millisievert with profound clarity †; CT Dose Check, a feature that
helps users manage exposure pre-scan through notifications and alerts to operators; free radiation safety iPad apps and
lower-dose webinars offering education and CE credits to healthcare professionals globally; DoseWatch*, a multi-modality
dose tracking and reporting tool; and Innova* interventional imaging systems designed to maximize dose efficiency, reduce
quantity and simplify dose management.
Further, the potential ability to reduce iodine concentration with lower radiation dose CT technologies and new contrast
agents are some of the many possibilities being studied by GE Healthcare. With expanding applications for contrastenhanced CT in vulnerable patients, contrast agent dose is also an important clinical topic.
Low Dose Image Contest
CT imaging is a critical tool in helping physicians diagnose disease and CT imaging has positively impacted millions of adults
and children. Traditionally in CT, doctors have had to balance the need for diagnostic image quality and low radiation dose
levels. If high levels of image quality were clinically needed, it often meant greater patient exposure to radiation, whereas
simply lowering radiation dose for exams, may have sacrificed image clarity, potentially impacting diagnostic quality.
However, with GE Healthcare’s Veo technology, doctors have achieved profoundly clear chest CT images in some cases
with less than one millisievert of dose. In that spirit, GE Healthcare has launched a “one millisievert low dose challenge” to
showcase the high-level diagnostic quality images taken at previously unthinkable low dose levels. The winners will be
announced early in 2013.
* Trademark of General Electric Company.
GE Healthcare at RSNA 2012
Each year in Chicago, the conference of the Radiological Association of North America (RSNA) provides a forum for
showcasing the latest innovations in medical imaging. If you are attending the conference, please visit GE Healthcare at
booth number 5433 in McCormick Place south hall. Throughout the week of the event, GE Healthcare will distribute news
and information using these digital platforms:
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Digital press kit: newsroom.gehealthcare.com/press-kits/ge-healthcare-at-rsna-2012
Twitter: @GEHealthcare and hashtag #GEWorks
YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/gehealthcare
Flickr: www.flickr.com/people/gehealthcare
Instagram: instagram.com/generalelectric
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About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our
broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug
discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance solutions services
help our customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In addition, we partner with
healthcare leaders, striving to leverage the global policy change necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable
healthcare systems.
Our “healthymagination” vision for the future invites the world to join us on our journey as we continuously develop
innovations focused on increasing access and improving quality and affordability around the world. Headquartered in the
GE Healthcare
United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employees are
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. For our latest news, please visit
http://newsroom.gehealthcare.com.
Media Contact
Michael Tetuan
GE Healthcare
michael.tetuan@ge.com
+1 414 690 2129