A new group of GE Healthcare’s high-tech products just reached a key milestone — being certified as ecomagination products within the company. To join GE’s ecomagination portfolio, the technologies must complete tough environmental and operational tests that measurably show performance benefits for customers when compared to baselines such as competitors’ best products; the installed base of products; and regulatory standards. A third-party then verifies the claims. In essence, the healthcare technologies not only do their day-jobs — helping save lives — they simultaneously aid healthcare companies and hospitals in reducing costs and waste while positively impacting the environment. With today’s announcement, GE’s 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.
What’s up doc? By replacing analog film and film processing with digital images, the GE Digital Mammography Platform, pictured above, offers significant advantages including less waste and reduced energy, water, and chemicals use. 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 of film annually.
At the heart of the ecomagination certification process is a belief that investing in, and developing, environmentally advanced products and services can help increase customers’ ability to compete and win. Reducing energy use and waste ultimately reduces cost in the system, said John Dineen, President and CEO of GE Healthcare.
Those cost benefits that come with ecomagination certification dovetail with GE Healthcare’s larger healthymagination goals to increase access and quality, while reducing costs. It’s a theme that GE Vice Chairman John Rice brought to the healthcare panels he joined at the just-concluded World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “During the most severe economic downturn in sixty years, we believe it is essential to continue investing in research and development,” he said at the forum. “And with healthymagination’s focus on developing healthcare products that make health better for more people, we believe GE can take a leadership role in addressing these problems.”
Today’s news gives GE Healthcare a total of seven product families that are ecomagination certified — which translates into 18 products. GE’s Centricity Enterprise Electronic Medical Record made the ecomagination cut today as it 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. Other products certified today include GE’s family of high efficiency magnetic resonance (MR) imaging systems, which employ more efficient electronics and an innovative water-cooling technology that helps cut energy use by about 34 percent compared to the previous generation systems.
And GE’s WAVE Bioreactor system — which is used for producing items such as vaccines — uses disposable bags to grow cell cultures, thereby eliminating the need to clean or steam sterilize large stainless steel tanks. This reduces water and energy consumption — and staff time requirements. Compared to the stainless steel system it replaces, annual energy consumption drops by up to 43 percent.
* Read today’s announcement
* Learn about other healthcare ecomagination products
* Read more healthcare stories on GE Reports
* Read more ecomagination stories on GE Reports