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GE Healthcare IT in India to increase quality, reduce cost, and improve access for all

GE Healthcare launched the Indian expansion of its $1.5B Global Healthcare IT business, pledging to offer strong healthcare connectivity and resources to a country that has lagged behind in this key area of healthcare delivery.

India, with a population of 1.3 Billion, has fewer than 0.7 beds per 1000 people and an acute shortage of healthcare professionals.  GE Healthcare IT solutions will help increase patient access and bridge the acute shortage of well-trained healthcare professionals.

"Healthcare IT is the spine of any good healthcare infrastructure.  It delivers information to the heart of healthcare institutions and to the fingertips of providers and patients seamlessly, anywhere, anytime,” said Vishal Wanchoo, president & CEO of GE Healthcare IT.  “We’re not strangers here. We understand the limitations Indian healthcare is facing between disparate clinics, little information sharing and the paperwork barrier.  We are committed to begin changing this through the initiatives we are announcing today and believe we’re ushering in a new era in Indian healthcare delivery."

India is now beginning to discover how GE Centricity solutions deliver information at the center of care, helping organizations achieve more effective and efficient decisions on behalf of patients and providers. GE offers solutions that span the clinical, service, financial and administrative sectors, financial & administrative solutions, clinical solutions and Service solutions that serve a broad range of organizations from small physician practices, to imaging centers and the largest hospital/integrated delivery networks (IDNs). Business software helps improve efficiency and enhance the patient experience. Clinical and imaging solutions help drive greater productivity and help enhance patient safety with workflows and managing protocols. Three key developments marked the official launch of the business, each addressing one of the key pillars of cost, quality and access.

Cost: Eliminating the need for Upfront Capital Investment.

Introducing healthcare IT solutions often requires significant up-front investment by healthcare providers, in addition to regular updates of software, hardware and maintenance.  To help eliminate this barrier to growth, GE Healthcare is offering "Managed Solutions" to providers who need to integrate multiple locations or have plans to expand and reach masses through GE Healthcare IT solutions in India.  While India is renowned for its use of IT in all other sectors, healthcare institutions will now be better connected with the investments GE Healthcare is making to create a centralized healthcare IT infrastructure.

"India has the largest pool of IT professionals and IT-savvy communities and it has left its mark on virtually every sector this country has.  Healthcare is the exception,” said V Raja, president & CEO of GE Healthcare South Asia. “We still lack the infrastructure to enable more unified access across our rural and urban communities. We believe the unique "managed" business model will help transform the way healthcare is delivered in India."

Quality: Clinical rich content & applications for India.

Designed to meet specifically cited needs in India, GE’s top-rated internet-based PACS-IW offering provides remote accessibility for radiologists to review images when they are away from the hospital, plus instantaneous reporting on true DICOM datasets, significantly reducing overall costs.

PACS-IW, a multi-site link in itself, provides state-of-the-art features, including 3D reconstruction “on the fly,” advanced image formatting and integrated reporting.  This solution works on most standard PCs with internetInternet access and has an extremely simplified end user workflow.  This combines to create a low maintenance teleradiology solution with absolutely no additional software installs or configuration needs.

Access: Alignment with DCA Imaging Centre  

GE Healthcare also announced its first “managed” Indian partnership with DCA Imaging Centre, New Delhi.  Under this alignment, GE Healthcare has installed Centricity PACS-IW solution at DCA Imaging headquarters in Delhi.  With this brand new solution, DCA Imaging has already connected five imaging centres in India and will create a wider network in the near future.  With GE’s solution, DCA Imaging Centre can now offer diagnostic reports without delay, and without any upfront investment.

“The benefits are enormous,” said Dr. Ajay Aggarwal, director and radiologist at Diwan Chand Integral Health Services in New Delhi, the first institution to install PACS-IW in India. “Using this connectivity model ensured we could leave our IT to the specialists at GE Healthcare and better allocate our funds for life saving technologies and facilities for improving patient care.  That means we don't have to worry about taking care of hardware or software upgrades, repair budget allocation or downtime.”   Dr. Ajay Aggarwal noted his staff’s instant recognition of the system’s performance and “screaming speed.”

We needed a solution that could grow as the organization grows and GE provided that,” said Dr. Aggarwal.  “This is just a small step in taking Indian healthcare into the future.  Imagine the entire Indian healthcare system using this intuitive tool to create networks for wider healthcare services. Indian healthcare will then take giant leaps!”

Source: GE Healthcare

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