GE Healthcare 's "MAC i" brings cost of quality cardiac early detection down to less than the price of a Bottle of Mineral Water in India

Heart disease is the number one killer in the world and India carries nearly 60% of this burden.  It is rising alarmingly and affects every one - rich & poor, urban or rural.  As part of GE's healthymagination commitment, GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), launched MAC i, an In India, For India ECG innovation that has the potential to reduce ECG price to as low as Rs.9/-.

Earlier, GE Healthcare re-defined affordability of quality ECG system prices through introduction of MAC 400. MAC 400 reduced cost of ECG systems to 1/3rd of similar quality imported ECG systems.   Today, MAC 400 is successfully used in many countries, thanks to its high quality, low cost, easy operation and portability. The new MAC i will make quality cardiac early detection doubly affordable as it is available to physicians at half the cost of MAC 400 - only Rs.25000/-.

"We are seeing a tipping point in healthcare today.  We believe technical innovations can drive solutions and value for our customers.  We are developing at least 100 innovations that will reduce the cost of procedure, increase access and improve quality.  Tomorrow, they will be used everywhere in the world - just like our In India, For India products - MAC 400, Lullaby baby warmer... said V Raja, President & CEO, GE Healthcare South Asia. “ Today, we are launching new solutions as part of this commitment which are low cost, simple and easy to use. They can potentially bridge the acute shortage of healthcare experts, healthcare insurance and electricity in rural India,” he added.

73% of India's population lives in rural areas today but nearly 80% of the healthcare providers, especially specialists are clustered in urban centers, making the situation even worse.  Patients have to travel long distances to meet experts and many times this happens only when there is a fatal attack; many of them do not reach a hospital in time. "Early detection" is key to tackling heart disease. Measuring the electrical activity of the heart through an ECG is the very first step in early detection of cardiac disease.  Acute shortage of experts, unavailability of appropriate technology and high costs have been a big barrier to making this a reality. 

Empowering the available physicians and para-health staff locally will facilitate early detection of potentially fatal cardiac disease and help reduce mortality.  Simple to use, low cost devices and tele-medicine technologies are what are needed in the absence of insurance coverage and non-availability of experts and consistent electricity supply. 

GE Healthcare donated the first MAC i unit to HelpAge India to facilitate early cardiac detection for elderly patients in sub-urban and reaching he un-reached areas in India.  "Innovations like these help us take advanced diagnosis to the bed side of the patient, wherever they are. HelpAge has a mobile clinic which serves elderly and under privileged. This MAC i from GE Healthcare will add cardiac early detection capabilities to our Mobile Clinic." said Rekha Murthy, Senior Manager, HelpAge India.

MAC i makes cardiac early detection very easy through its simple, one touch operation.  It is a single channel ECG system capable of printing in 3 channels at the same time - which means ECG can be printed line by line per page or 3 lines on one page. It is very easy for any para-health staff or physician to use the system anywhere with just a few minutes of training.  It is capable of completing 500 3-channel ECGs or 250 single channel ECGs for every 3 hour battery charge, which equals one month of operation in a village where availability of electricity is a major constraint. It is particularly suited for rural India where healthcare is delivered through Primary Health Clinics or individual physician clinics. The MAC i comes with the highly accurate and clinically proven Marquette 12SLTM analysis program. The same quality that resides in the premium ECG devices is made available in the compact MAC i to enable every physician to use the GE technology and perform reliable ECGs on every patient.

MAC i will be show-cased at the Cardiological Society of India congress from December 2 - 5, 2009 at Cochin, India.

Source: GE Healthcare

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