Bangalore, Feb 15, 2010: GE Healthcare, the 17 billion healthcare division of the diversified General Electric has launched Vscan, a new pocket-sized visualization tool developed to provide physicians with imaging capabilities at the point-of-care.

Roughly the size of a smart phone, Vscan has, powerful, ultra-smart ultrasound technology that provides clinicians with an immediate, non-invasive method to help secure visual information about what is happening inside the body. Vscan is portable, battery operated and can easily be taken from room to room to be used in many clinical, hospital or primary care settings.

"Vscan is a breakthrough innovation from GE Healthcare and has the potential to redefine frontline healthcare practice and patient management with its ability to give non-invasive, visual information of the inside body in real time. Vscan is designed to be complementary to the stethoscope – to help physicians go beyond what they can hear to what they can see. Vscan may become as critical as a stethoscope to a physician in helping to detect disease more quickly. We believe Vscan can reduce the need for more tests and referrals during physical examinations and could make healthcare more accessible to people in India. Vscan naturally echoes our healthymagination commitment to bring high quality healthcare at lower cost to more people around the world" said V Raja, President & CEO, GE Healthcare South Asia.

The primary goal of every point-of-care physician is to detect diseases and complications as early as possible, promoting faster and more effective treatment. Likewise, the ability to rule out a complication during an exam can help patients avoid unnecessary testing or additional procedures. Outside of the point-of-care setting, great strides have been made in imaging technology. Ultrasound can provide an immediate look inside the body to visualize what physicians could only feel and hear during a traditional exam. However until recently, high quality ultrasound imaging was only available with console ultrasound units, weighing upto several hundred kilograms, necessitating a referral for the patient and prolonging diagnosis.

"The most common practice we (physicians) follow to assess health is to monitor pulse and listen through a stethoscope. To make rapid diagnosis, especially critical, in life threatening situations we need to take a look inside the body. Every minute saved can save a precious life. I wish every physician has a valuable visualization tool like GE Vscan that becomes his/her pocket buddy to help save lives in critical situations.

Vscan has the potential to redefine patient care definition in the medical history of India. It is an invaluable tool from an emergency physician's perspective. It has the ability to be the first point of detecting disease conditions, even in primary care settings.

India has the dubious distinction of being the cardiac & diabetes capital of the world. One person dies every 6 minutes in road accidents. Nearly 70% of people live in rural areas with limited or no access to healthcare facilities. NRHM has pointed out that India carries 20% of the global disease burden, which is more than its share of world's population at 17%. Availability of trained manpower in areas where they are needed is a distant dream. The Government of India is pulling out all stops to make basic healthcare affordable for every section of society. The authorities are also working to improve availability of trained manpower through short term medical courses for rural doctors.

Mr. S Ganesh Prasad, Director - Ultrasound Business, GE Healthcare South Asia, said, "Technology inventions can play a critical part in bridging these huge gaps that is deterring a healthy India. Healthcare in India is poised for new dimensions with the introduction of Vscan pocket visualization tool. We believe miniaturization of technology is the need of the hour for providing rapid access to advanced healthcare for more people at reduced costs. Recently we designed miniaturized ECG systems in India to provide care at the doorstep of people and today we have continued to move forward with Vscan"

Vscan is capable of scanning upto 30 patients with its one hour battery power backup. Physicians can store patient images with its 4GB memory card expandable upto 32 GB. The high image quality combined with simple, familiar, intuitive user interface that can be controlled using the thumb helps facilitate disease detection. Using a familiar dial key interface, physicians can zoom images in and out, pan left and right for analysis. Clinician can store images, add voice annotations and the docking station plus cable link helps the transfer of data to a PC for organizing or sharing with experts through e-mail or Internet.