Author: GEreporter

Today in Vancouver, Canada, two hockey stars from this year’s Winter Games — Martin Brodeur and Angela Ruggiero — took to the ice with legendary skate greats Scott Hamilton and Michelle Kwan in a ceremony to honor the army of medical staffers and volunteers who are keeping the athletes on full power at this year’s Olympics. During the event, in which the docs and their teams were saluted as “Better Health Heroes,” the four Olympic medalists shared their personal insights and stories about the importance of healthy living — both in their own lives and for the competitors at the Vancouver games. It’s all part of GE’s Year of Better Health, which earlier this week featured the first in a series of ongoing health surveys of both doctors and patients.

Ice scream: Iconic figure skater Scott Hamilton, who was a 1984 Olympic Gold Medalist and is seen here signing autographs at the event, told the crowd: “My relationship with my doctors has saved my life in my two battles with cancer. I have a two-year-old and a six-year-old and I want to be around to see them grow up. Having that close relationship with your doctors is key and not just when you’re sick.” (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

In the video clip below, Mike Barber, who heads GE’s healthymagination initiative, talks about the critical role that the health volunteers are playing at the Games.

Today’s panel discussion focused on tips for healthy living — and on how both the current and former Olympic athletes have learned to focus on their own wellness.

Medal round: Two of the Better Health Heroes are seen above hitting the ice with their colleagues to celebrate. Today’s event was held at Vancouver’s Robson Square ice rink, which GE helped refurbish and has been renamed GE Plaza until the end of the Games. The rink has become the main center of attention for Olympic fans as it’s not only packed with families skating, but performances and events have been featured each night during the competitions. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The video below shows just how critical the medical teams are rink-side and slope-side – and how GE’s technology is helping bring a number of ‘firsts’ to the games. As Dr. Mike Wilkinson, head of medical services at the games, says in the clip: “Volunteering at the Olympics as a team physician is one of the highlights of a career.” Adds Dr. Ross Brown, polyclinic manager: “They really want to be here. They not only want to work with the equipment and the uniqueness of the environment, but they want to do their part to support the Olympics and the Paralympics.”

The Games’ Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Jack Taunton, said at the event that more than 1,500 Healthy Heroes have volunteered to make the Olympics possible.

Fit club: Martin Brodeur, the goalie for Team Canada Ice Hockey and a gold medalist in Salt Lake City, told the cheering crowd: “When you go out every day to perform, you have to take care of yourself. A healthy lifestyle is not just exercise, it’s an attitude.” (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Michelle Kwan told the panel: “When I was competing in the Olympics, it was my job to be in shape. Now I have to make it a priority to get healthy, work out and get enough sleep. My dad always said, ‘Remember to take care of yourself,’ and that’s what I make sure I do now.”

A good sign: Angela Ruggiero, current defenseman for the U.S. Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey Team and a three-time Olympic Medalist, said at the event: “I always have this incredible team of doctors, physical therapists and nutritionists to support me. A program like healthymagination gives all of us the tools and support to help achieve those goals.” (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

As Mike said at the event: “We want to change the conversation about health and healthcare to one of optimism and possibility so that people around the world can imagine, embrace and commit to leading healthier, more productive lives.

To your health! Audience members at the rink-side event were encouraged to visit healthymagination.com, where they can find tools and information to help them take a more proactive role in their own better health. GE’s initiative is all about bringing better health to more people through innovations and technology — and by encouraging everyone to develop a stronger relationship with their doctors. From left are Mike, Michelle, Martin, Angela, Scott and Dr. Jack Taunton. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

In the clip below, Angela shares her health tips during a break at today’s event:

And in this clip, Scott takes a playful dig at at those of us out there who know what to do when it comes to good health, but just never seem to put it into practice:

* Members of the media can learn more at healthymagination.com/news
* Follow detailed coverage of today’s event on healthymagination’s blog
* See an interview from today’s event with Martin Brodeur on CNET
* View photos from today on GE’s Flickr page
* Read more Olympics stories on GE Reports
* Learn more about our healthymagination business strategy

Over the last week, we’ve highlighted healthcare technology innovations that are part of this year’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. But long after the skiers and skaters have headed home, GE will still be in British Columbia — helping build the province’s largest private wind and run-of-river energy projects. GE Energy Financial Services and Plutonic Power Corporation just provided updates on the giant undertakings, which involve investments of nearly $900 million, at an event held at Vancouver’s Robson Square ice rink — which GE helped refurbish and has been renamed GE Plaza until the end of the Games. The Dokie Wind Project and the East Toba River and Montrose Creek Hydroelectric Project will help British Columbia meet its goal of electricity self-sufficiency by 2016 by generating 90 percent of its power from clean domestic energy sources.

Power play: GE and Plutonic executives celebrated the official start of construction on phase one of the Dokie Wind Project, which is 680 miles northeast of Vancouver, during the event at Robson Square, above. GE Energy Financial Services, which is our energy investment arm, and Plutonic jointly contributed and arranged $218 million of project equity and debt to finance construction of the project.

With phase one of the Dokie project now underway, roads are being cleared and foundations are being prepped for the wind turbines. The 144-megawatt project is expected to reach commercial operation by early next year and provide enough electricity to meet the annual needs of 34,000 homes and avoid more than 229,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel sources — the equivalent of taking 44,000 cars off the road.

Donald McInnes, left, and Alex Urquhart

In the audio clip below, Donald McInnes, CEO of Plutonic Power Corporation, describes the project and the work that was done with the seven First Nations, whose traditional territories are where the two projects are located:

As Alex Urquhart, president and CEO of GE Energy Financial Services, says in the clip below: “We think we’re a lot closer to the beginning of what can be done up here in British Columbia in the renewables space than we are at the end.”

The video clip below shows what is envisioned for the Dokie wind project:

GE and Plutonic executives also announced that the $628 million, 196-megawatt East Toba River and Montrose Creek Hydroelectric Project, located 118 miles northwest of Vancouver, is more than 80 percent complete. It has the potential to power approximately 75,000 homes and displace an estimated 455,000 tons of greenhouse gases annually — the equivalent of taking approximately 90,000 cars off the road. In the clip below, the Toba Valley project is explained.

GE and Plutonic Power are also preparing to undertake a feasibility study on the expansion of the Dokie Wind Project to 300 megawatts, which would be the largest private-sector wind farm built west of Ontario. The partners also are pursuing the Upper Toba Valley and Bute Inlet run-of-river hydroelectric projects in British Columbia.

* Read more about the Vancouver event
* Read coverage in the Globe and Mail
* Read coverage via Bloomberg News
* Read “GE, Plutonic may double capacity of Dokie Ridge” in Recharge News
* Read more Energy Financial Services stories on GE Reports
* Click here to learn about Canada’s study on wind farm revenues
* Learn more about GE Energy Financial Services
* See videos about the Plutonic projects

The just-concluded TED 2010 conference — which each year brings together “some of the most fascinating thinkers and doers” from the worlds of Technology, Entertainment and Design — took as its theme this year: “What the world needs now.” Armed with that weighty bit of inspiration, the nearly 50 speakers — ranging from Bill Gates to director James Cameron — were then asked to “give the talk of their lives” by tackling one of 12 themes in just 18 minutes on eye-opening subjects such as “Mindshift,” “Discovery,” “Play,” “Provocation,” “Breakthrough,” and “Imagination.” To help continue those conversations — and to capture some of the buzz and inspiration that inevitably fills the halls after a speaker wows the crowd — GE created a social space at the conference where those in attendance could share their thoughts in video booths. A sampling of them is featured below.

What’s the big idea? GE’s booths — which are the tower-like structures in the background that had rotating colors of green, blue, and the orange pictured above — helped capture audience responses while they were still fresh following each of the talks. The videos then immediately joined the loops of other booth recordings being shown on nearby TV screens, which played throughout the conference.

TED organizers have noted with justifiable pride that past attendees have called the conference “the ultimate brain spa,” “Davos for optimists” and “a four-day journey into the future, in the company of those creating it.” That same optimism was evident in the GE booths, where attendees were given conversational prompts upon entering that were tied to TED’s 12 themes, as well as the broader question of “What the world needs now.”

In the clip below, Michael Borosky describes the potential of “democratizing” technology:

Here, Catherine Mohr, is inspired by “data-driven” decision-making:

John Ellenthal’s focus was collaboration:

In this clip, linkages between food and cancers are steering Gwen Campbell to more dark chocolate and red wine!

And, sometimes words just can’t express a TED-inspired moment, as the band ETHEL proved when they opened the door of the GE video booth to record their take on what the world needs now.

You can get a taste of TED in this video, which compiles some of the highlights from recent conferences.

* Learn about the TED 2010 speakers
* See the TED 2010 program
* Read recaps on TED’s blog
* Meet some of less famous, but equally “fascinating” TED speakers via CNN

It’s an unhealthy sign of the times — more people know how many vacation days they have left (47 percent) than how many calories they consumed yesterday (43 percent). And doctors aren’t surprised, as 77 percent of healthcare professionals say that one fourth or more of their patients omit facts or lie to them about their personal health. Those are just some of the results from the new GE Better Health Study conducted with Cleveland Clinic and Ochsner Health System. As the first in a series that will examine healthy living attitudes and behaviors, the study is part of GE’s healthymagination initiative, which seeks to provide better health for more people through technology and innovation. At the same time, because understanding massive amounts of health data can be daunting, GE is also working to make better sense of it by partnering with health economists and leading visualization designers. Below, in our seventh data visualization project, we’ve again turned to Ben Fry to help make some of the new survey data not only more accessible, but interactive.

And the survey says! Click on the graphic to use the visualization tool on our healthymagination.com website. It highlights a selection of the Better Health survey questions so that you can answer them yourself — and then see how your responses compare to the broader survey results.

As part of GE’s healthymagination efforts at this year’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, GE is working with Michelle Kwan — a two-time Olympic champion and five-time World Champion figure skater — to help increase awareness about consumer health tools available on healthymagination.com and the ways in which you can take charge of your own health. As she says in the video below, “It’s important to go to your doctors — not just to listen to your doctors but to be proactive. Do your research.”

Among other findings in GE’s new survey, is that 92 percent of healthcare professionals give Americans far lower grades — “C” or lower — on managing their personal health than Americans give to themselves. At the same time, many Americans say they would rather live in pain (47 percent) than visit their doctor — and they prioritize household chores over healthy living. For example, 33 percent of respondents said time is the single biggest challenge to living healthier, yet 50 percent spend more time cleaning their house or thinking about living in a cleaner house than taking care of their personal health (44 percent). The study surveyed more than 3,000 people — 1,000 of whom were healthcare professionals.

It also found that most Americans see the health of others on the wrong track — but not their own. Yet, when asked what their personal health numbers are, only 24 percent knew their body mass index (BMI); just 29 percent knew their blood glucose level; only one third new their daily caloric intake; and only 36 percent knew their current cholesterol levels.

* Click here to read the full details about GE’s new health survey.

Try out our other visualization tools:
* Seed’s The Cost of Getting Sick tool shows the cost of chronic conditions
* Seed’s Health Issues tool shows how some conditions are related to one another
* Seed’s How’s Your Health Profile? tool lets you see conditions common to your profile
* GOOD’s Cost of Chronic Diseases info-graphic shows the costs of leading diseases
* GOOD’s Causes of Death info-graphic shows the leading causes by age
* GOOD’s World Health info-graphic shows the money 12 countries spend on healthcare

* See all of GE’s data visualizations in one place
* See a video in “Ben Fry & Seed labs visualize The Cost of Getting Sick”
* Learn more about our healthymagination business strategy
* Read more Olympics stories on GE Reports

For the first time in Olympic history, the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games — which kick off today — will have ultrasound available at many Olympic venues for rapid diagnosis of injuries sustained on the ice or snow. In training rooms and tents rink-side or slope-side, GE’s laptop-sized LOGIQ e will be on hand to give doctors, coaches and athletes a much quicker understanding of injuries, helping to identify early signs of tendon and ligament damage as well as other health markers. Ultrasound scans taken on-site will be sent digitally to radiologists in the athlete’s villages for review immediately, increasing the likelihood of a faster return-to-play decision. As Eden Donatelli Green, a two-time Olympic speed skater from Canada, says in the video below: “When you’re competing at an Olympic level, you want to race the race. If they can tell you ‘you’re ok, go race,’ well, that would be worth its weight in gold.”

As we described in our story on Wednesday, this year’s Winter Games have another medical first, as doctors and clinics will be using the most comprehensive information technology solution for healthcare support in Olympic Games history. GE technologies will be connecting staff at remote polyclinics and mobile medical units — which are positioned close to the ski runs and other venues that are often far from hospitals — in order to provide the most updated information in emergency situations.

Healthcare solutions such as the rink-side ultrasound and the IT connectivity are both examples of GE’s healthymagination initiative to drive technologies that increase access to care while simultaneously reducing costs and increasing quality. To help show how those technologies can make a real difference in people’s lives, new TV ads were launched this week. The humorous spot below shows how Electronic Medical Records help doctors treat their patients better by having all of a patient’s medical history is in one place.

And, as you’ll hear if you click on this TV spot, saying “ahh” never sounded better.

In the U.S., we’re celebrating President’s Day on Monday — which also gives everyone extra time to stay glued to the Olympics! See you again on Tuesday.

* Watch our other healthymagination TV spots on our YouTube channel
* Learn more about GE’s work with the Olympics
* Read “At Vancouver Olympics, a great skate on newly nice ice” on GE Reports
* Watch a video about our mobile medical unit
* Learn more about the games
* Learn more about GE’s ongoing work with the Olympics
* Read “Olympic countdown begins: 1,000 days to London 2012” on GE Reports
* Read more healthymagination stories on GE Reports

There’s been a flurry of engine buzz lately when it comes to GE’s jet engines. This week marked a major milestone in the development of GE’s most advanced line of engines as the GEnx-2B powered the first flight test for Boeing’s new 747-8 Freighter. It was also the first GEnx engine to fly on a new aircraft. The flight came just days after the conclusion of the Singapore Air Show, which also created a different kind of excitement in aviation circles thanks to photos of elaborate tattoo tributes to GE’s largest engine, the GE90, that were published online to coincide with the big show.

Feeling sky high! The GEnx-powered Boeing 747-8 flew for three and a half hours in the first flight that took off from Boeing’s Paine Field outside of Seattle, Washington. The GEnx uses a carbon composite structure in the engine’s fan blades and fan case, which substantially reduces weight and makes the engines more efficient. Photo courtesy of Boeing.

Tom Brisken, general manager of the GEnx program, was on hand for the debut flight and describes the big day — and the next steps — in the audio clip below.

This year will bring more important milestones for the GEnx program as the GEnx-1B engine takes its first flight powering Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner — and the GEnx-2B-powered 747-8 Freighter is delivered to its first customer, Cargolux. The GEnx is the fastest selling engine in GE’s history with about 1,300 engines on order — and more than 400 of these orders are for the GEnx-2B engine.

Part of GE’s ecomagination portfolio, the GEnx-2B engine will offer customers a 13 percent improvement in fuel efficiency, which translates into 13 percent less CO₂ emissions. The GEnx will also dramatically reduce NOx gases as much as 60 percent below today’s regulatory limits and other regulated gases as much as 90 percent. The new engine is one of the quietest engines GE has produced with noise levels about 30 percent lower.

Meanwhile, the website tattoosinflight.com turned a few heads by featuring photos of what they rightly dub “amazing” tattoo cutaways of the GE90 engine.

Work of art: Click on the image to visit tattoosinflight.com, where it and two others can be seen in larger views.

As the author writes about the work of tattoo artist Brett J. Barr of Orlando, Florida: “I will admit, I waited a while before posting this tattoo… we wanted to display it at just the right time because we didn’t want such an amazing piece of tattoo artistry overlooked.”

“In fact, when I first saw this incredible tattoo of a General Electric GE90 turbofan engine as a cutaway image, I knew this was a feature to cherish. So now, as the aviation world looks to the future this week at the Singapore Airshow in Asia… I felt it was the perfect time to post this tattoo of the ultimate evolution in commercial aircraft engines.”

* See the GEnx engine debut at 2009 Paris Air Show
* Watch Part 1 of our series: Born to run: Building the GEnx jet engine
* Watch Part 2 of our series: In the factory: Building the GEnx jet engine
* Watch Part 3 of our series: The right stuff: Building the GEnx jet engine
* Watch all of the videos in the series
* Learn more about the GEnx and ecomagination

The athletes in Vancouver haven’t started their races yet, but this year’s Winter Olympics –- which kicks off on Friday –- has already scored a medical first. Doctors and clinics at the 2010 games will be using the most comprehensive information technology solution for healthcare support in Olympic Games history. GE technologies will be connecting staff at remote polyclinics and mobile medical units — which are positioned close to the ski runs and other venues that are often far from hospitals — in order to provide the most updated information in emergency situations.

Crystal clear: Prominent ads at the Vancouver games showcase GE Healthcare’s imaging technologies and GE’s healthymagination efforts to lower costs while simultaneously increasing access and improving quality.

A centerpiece of the technologies being used is GE Healthcare’s Centricity imaging solution. It combines web-based reporting systems with the imaging systems — allowing the clinical staff of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games to digitize their imaging work and more easily share it with other doctors and locations. For athletes, it could reduce or eliminate the need to transport them for medical advice -– and can ultimately allow a quicker return to competition.

View master: The system’s user-friendly design provides an “electronic trading post” for radiology images. It means that medical automation systems such as Hospital Information Systems (HIS), Electronic Medical Records Systems (EMR), Practice Management Systems, and Radiology Information Systems (RIS) can all more easily interact with each other.

“This will also be the first time the medical staff can interface very easily with a large hospital authority like Vancouver Coastal Health that covers the whole Olympic Winter Games Corridor,” Dr. Jack Taunton, chief medical officer of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

GE is also providing a range of infrastructure solutions for Olympic Games venues including power, lighting, water treatment, transportation and security. GE’s healthcare work during the Winter Games includes supplying the games with a new 64-slice CT scanner, which is the first for the region; two polyclinics, one in Vancouver and one in Whistler, featuring GE Healthcare technologies; digital imaging equipment including ultrasound technology; and a mobile medical unit, pictured below..

Let’s roll! At first sight, GE’s mobile medical unit is a 15.9-meter tractor-trailer. However, it has expandable sides that create 90 square meters of space — converting it to a 12-bed clinic. It includes a recovery/triage area and intensive care unit, as well as an operating room with two independent surgical beds. A support trailer will also be stocked with 72 hours worth of surgical supplies and other equipment. Following the Games, the Province of British Columbia will purchase the unit from Olympic organizing committee.

* Learn more about GE’s work with the Olympics
* Read today’s announcement
* Watch a video about our mobile medical unit
* Learn more about the upcoming games
* Learn more about GE’s ongoing work with the Olympics
* Read “Olympic countdown begins: 1,000 days to London 2012” on GE Reports
* Read more healthymagination stories on GE Reports

Scientists at GE Global Research are continuing to draw notice for their work in two next-generation lighting projects. On the one hand are thin, flexible OLEDs that may one day wallpaper rooms with thin sheets of light or illuminate the safety gear worn by your local firefighter. They’ve again caught the attention of the Department of Energy, which is interested in accelerating GE’s work to develop a “roll to roll” low-cost manufacturing process that would allow factories to make them just like giant rolls of newsprint. On the other hand are LEDs — which are already widely sold today but may soon be even more efficient and come in more colors thanks to materials research currently underway.

Getting closer: U.S. Department of Energy awards went to 17 lighting research projects, including two to GE for OLED research, above, and more efficient LEDs.

GE has already completed the world’s first demonstration of a roll-to-roll manufacturing process for OLED lighting – and the new award is for the next phase of development. As GE’s Anil Duggal, OLED lighting program leader, says in the latest issue of Fast Company: “GE has committed to offering OLED lighting sheets as early as the end of 2010. But to make this a reality that’s good for our business, we need to produce more than 100 lumens per watt and a long lifetime, better than what fluorescents can do today. OLEDs can do it, but no one wants to pay for a lightbulb what you spend on a TV. Our challenge is to try to marry low cost with performance. We’re not going to have that solved in 2010, but we’re hoping we’ll be there in 2015.”

Meanwhile, LEDs — which were invented by GE scientists in the early 1960s, are being taken to the next level with the help of the new D.O.E. award. GE researchers are focusing on the development of new phosphor materials that help LEDs meet the color quality and efficiency required for general lighting. As Popular Mechanics just wrote: “The majority of LED fixtures and devices make icy white-blue light, ‘and things don’t look that vibrant under that white light,’ says Anant Setlur, a materials scientist at General Electric. However, these white-light LEDs very efficiently convert electrical energy into light. So the goal is to lower blue LEDs’ color temperature into more reddish and warm values.” Phosphors absorb light, the magazine explains, and then re-emit the light with the desired lighting characteristics.

* Read “17 Projects Shaping the Future of LED Lights” in Popular Mechanics
* Read “How GE Creates Sheets of OLED Light” in Fast Company
* Read Anil’s Global Research blog about the projects
* Learn about the phosphors research in Anant Setlur’s Global Research blog
* View our audio slide show interview with Anil
* Read more Global Research stories on GE Reports

With much of its locomotive fleet nearly four decades old, Nigeria is eager to inject new technologies into its rail system as it embarks on widespread upgrades to its passenger and freight lines. As we reported in May, GE recently signed an agreement with the government of Nigeria that aims to throw open the door to a host of collaborations in transportation, oil and gas processing, electric power generation, water treatment, healthcare, aviation and integrated safety and security systems. As part of that goal, today the first of five GE locomotives arrived in the country — with 20 more slated for delivery later this year.

Rail good news! The Model C25 six-axle locomotives were designed specifically to accommodate Nigeria’s weight per axle and clearance characteristics. Locomotives similar to the C25 are already successfully hauling freight in South Africa. Approximately 17,000 GE locomotives are in use in more than 50 countries around the world.

The new GE fleet will not only help Nigeria meet its rail ambitions — they mark another global jobs collaboration across GE. Just as we reported in our recent “sugarland express” story about ethanol giant Cosan ordering 50 locomotives for its Brazilian operations, the engines are manufactured in our Grove City, Pennsylvania plant while the locomotives are built by GE’s facility in Brazil. The South America plant has built GE diesel electric locomotives, including the C Series being used by Nigeria, since 1967.

Daniel Weinreich

Lorenzo Simonelli, President and CEO of GE Transportation, said “the arrival of the first locomotives represents an important step in GE Transportation’s entry into the Nigerian market place.” And as GE’s Daniel Weinreich explains in the audio clip below, the new technology being introduced into the aging Nigerian fleet will not only mean improved hauling capabilities on both freight and passenger lines, but increased fuel efficiency, too.

GE has a long-standing relationship with Nigeria in other sectors such as energy, aviation, and oil & gas, with over 170 employees in country. In 2008, GE’s revenues in Africa were $3.5 billion, an increase of almost 40 percent over 2007. For example, GE Aviation has sold about 95 engines with a list value of $1 billion in Nigeria since 2006. And, of the more than 200 GE gas turbines currently installed in Africa, Nigeria is home to more than half.

A fast train to Africa: The C25 Locomotive is seen here in Brazil with a delegation from Nigeria before shipping. From left to right: Bature Gafai, Director of Land Transport; Bernard Udoh, Chairman House Committee of Land Transport; Kayode Garrick, Nigerian Ambassador to Brazil; Isa Ibrahim Bio, Minister of Transport; Senator Yakubu Lado, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Land Transport; Mohammed Mijindadi, GE Transportation Commercial Leader for West Africa; and Umar Sarkinfada, Minister of the Nigerian Embassy in Brazil.

* Read today’s announcement
* Learn more about GE’s other operations in Nigeria
* Read “GE and Nigeria ink landmark infrastructure agreement” on GE Reports
* Read “Healthcare in Africa: A closer look at Ghana” on GE Reports
* Read “The sugar-land express: Brazil orders 50 locomotives” on GE Reports
* Read more Transportation stories on GE Reports

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

Revolutionizing bulky Magnetic Resonance Imaging systems, known as MRIs, by making them more mobile, lighter, and less costly is in the cross hairs in GE’s labs. The National Institutes of Health just awarded the team at GE Global Research, which is the company’s technology development arm, a grant for nearly $3.3 million to develop smaller magnets for the critical scanners. As Minfeng Xu, an electrical engineer in GE’s Electromagnets and Superconductivity Lab, writes in his blog today: “Imagine a lighter and smaller MRI system in an ambulance that can be dispatched for emergency care. Imagine a slim MRI system, like the one shown in the figure below, installed in your doctor’s office that can be used for a quick scan when you need it. We are working toward it.”

Big things in small packages: The magnet that GE researchers are developing will be smaller and will require less wire to support an MRI scanner. The reduction in wire would also help reduce the overall cost of an MRI system. “The whole idea is to create a more highly mobile, less costly MRI system platform that delivers the same high resolution and quality of imaging for patients,” said GE’s Kathleen Amm, Lab manager, Electromagnetics and Superconductivity.

In magnetic resonance imaging, the magnet is the key part of the system that enables detailed images that differentiate various soft tissues inside the body, such as in the brain and the cardiovascular system. To obtain images with such high resolution and quality, the magnet must be kept at super cool temperatures of -269 degrees Celsius — which is only a few degrees above absolute zero and as cold as outer space.

Cryogenic liquids, or liquids at ultra-low temperatures, are used today to keep it cool — but cryogenic liquids require special venting and other room specifications, which make the MRI systems more expensive and difficult to install. As a result, many parts of the world still do not have access to this potentially life-saving technology.

A giant leap: The potential impact of the new research can be seen when comparing the size of the scanner in the artist’s rendition at the top of the page and one of GE’s latest sanners, above. The Magnetic Resonance Imaging Laboratory at GE Global Research is currently focused on developing new diagnostic imaging techniques, MR systems, and hardware. The first 1.5T whole-body scanner was developed in Global Research’s MRI lab in Niskayuna in 1983 — with that breakthrough, revolutionary at the time, followed by major innovations in MR imaging.

The research now underway is designed to develop a cryogen-free magnet that would considerably reduce these costs and installation requirements As Minfeng explains, that’s especially important “in regions where cryogen and cryogen services are limited.” The end goal is to dramatically expand access to underserved communities worldwide — which is a key driver of GE’s new healthymagination business strategy.

* Read today’s announcement
* Read Minfeng Xu’s blog post
* Learn more about Minfeg Xu in a Q&A
* Learn more about advanced imaging at GE Global Research
* Read more stories and see videos about our labs on GE Reports
* Read “$1,000 genome project advances to NIH round two” on GE Reports
* Read “Wearable airborne chemical sensor wins NIH award” on GE Reports
* Watch “Pediatric design turns scary MRIs into ‘Adventures’” on GE Reports

Contributor Vivek Kemp is GE’s Reporter at Large

Our ongoing “GE Genius Series” is all about meeting the people in GE’s labs who are driving the next big breakthroughs. In our first two installments, Radislav Potyrailo revealed how butterfly wings are fanning his nanotechnology research and Anil Duggal lit the path to a future of bendable OLEDs that will one day fill your home with wallpaper lights. Today we meet Danielle Merfeld, who heads up solar technology programs at GE Global Research’s lab in Niskayuna, New York. Like her colleague Anil, Danielle thinks thin when it comes to letting the sunshine in. “The biggest next step is going to be when you start putting thin [solar panel] films around a flexible substrate that can be wrapped around things,” she says in the audio slideshow below. “They can conform to a roof, or hung like sails. Not only are they very light, and hopefully very inexpensive to produce, they’re also more architecturally interesting and you can do a lot more with them than you can with a rigid panel of any size.”

Meet the other scientists in our “GE Genius” series:
* “Part 2: Thin is in with OLEDs”
* “Part 1: Breakthroughs from butterflies”

* Learn more about our research labs in these GE Reports stories and videos
* Learn more about Danielle’s work on the GE Global Research blog
* Read about Danielle being featured as the “EcoGeek of the Week” on ecogeek.org

Of the $2.5 million that GE has targeted for earthquake relief in Haiti, $1 million will be used to help the next phase of the response effort — recovery. That stage is already underway with solar-powered water purification units now shipping to the devasted country, along with critically needed medical technologies (such as ultrasound, anesthesia and x-ray) and mobile video units to help search and rescue teams. In addition to the $2.5 million pledge, GE employees have donated $1.5 million to organizations supporting the relief efforts, half of which comes from matching grants from the GE Foundation.

Operates anywhere: The technology effectively treats groundwater, surface-water, and recycled rainwater or cistern water. They are solar-powered, portable, and able to produce clean drinking water using the same membrane treatment technology used by large scale treatment plants.

In addition to the Sunspring water purification systems — which GE Water & Process Technologies makes with our partner, Innovative Water Technologies — GE Healthcare has shipped anesthesia units, ultrasound machines and mobile x-ray units. GE Sensing & Inspection Technologies is also sending portable video cameras that can snake into hard to reach places in order to aid search & rescue efforts.

On their way: One of the Sunspring water filtration units is seen here in the warehouse just prior to shipping out to Haiti.

On the go: GE recently launched its latest ultrasound, the Venue 40, which is now being shipped to Haiti. It’s been reduced to a size smaller than a laptop computer.

“A single Sunspring unit is capable of producing 19,000 liters of drinkable water every day,” notes CBS news in its story about the shipment. “The units are quick to deploy and can be operational three hours after arrival.” That means they can have an immediate impact — but they can also be of critical use long-term, as they operate for years.

In addition to GE’s financial donations to the Red Cross and UNICEF, the GE Foundation — the philanthropic organization of GE — is committing a 100 percent match of all employee donations sent to qualified organizations supporting Haiti relief efforts.

“Recognizing the overwhelming blow this disaster has brought to the Haitian people and the country’s infrastructure, GE is committed to help the region in this critical time of need,” said Bob Corcoran, vice president of GE Foundation. “The generosity and activation of our employees is inspiring and the GE Foundation is proud to match their philanthropic efforts.”

On the lookout: The XL PRO video borescope, seen on the left, is made by GE Sensing & Inspection Technologies and will be used by search and rescue teams. The XL Go, at right, is also being shipped. It has the same basic features as the XL PRO, but weighs only 4lbs.

Ready for action: With much of Haiti’s water supply contaminated following the quake, the need for filtration equipment to prevent dysentary and other diseases is extremely high. Here the Sunspring units can be seen just prior to being shipped.

* See a CBS news video about the Sunspring units heading to Haiti
* Read “New miniature ultrasound puts power in docs’ hands” on GE Reports
* Learn about GE’s initial donations following the earthquake