Q1 2021 – Supporting clinicians with fast, reliable insights

As we reflect on our first quarter, a quarter where our team has much to be proud of, we are all also witnessing painful reminders that the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over. Many of our colleagues around the world, especially in India and parts of Latin America and Europe, are reeling under new waves of the disease. Meanwhile, our teams continue working tirelessly to support healthcare providers by meeting the demand for technologies needed as a result of both COVID-19 spikes and a backlog of patients in need of routine procedures.

As we see elective procedures return to near pre-pandemic levels, we’re finding ways to support our customers who are still running at reduced capacity and have many patients who are experiencing longer than normal waiting times for screening, diagnosis, treatment planning and surgical procedures. 

With so many patients in and outside the hospital, the time was right to introduce our new, wireless, pocket-sized ultrasound Vscan Air , a small, mobile device that delivers crystal clear images of the heart, lungs or whole body on a clinician’s smartphone – providing them with fast, reliable insights when and where they need it most, at the point of care.[1]

Further ensuring our customers are fit for the COVID fight, we also launched the Venue Fit, a streamlined, compact point of care ultrasound system, and two new software features on Venue and Venue Go – industry-first AI tool for real-time cardiac ejection fraction measurement and a tool that provides a panoramic view of the entire lung, both intended to help clinicians more effectively fight this pandemic.

With elective procedures returning, we were pleased to gain FDA clearance of a new surgical imaging system that we believe sets a standard for interoperative 3D imaging with precise volumetric images for spine and orthopedic procedures, and may make 3D imaging routine for complex spine and joint replacement procedures. And in Europe we introduced StarGuide, a new nuclear medicine system[2] to help advance precision health and theranostics. This offers clinicians the unique ability to simultaneously image multiple tracers in a single scan, which helps reduce the need for multiple patient visits, and, in relevant cases, multiple patient sedations.

Also of note this quarter, our cardiology enterprise software was voted Best in KLAS in Cardiology IT and we also received recognition for our AI-based Command Centers that help hospitals make real-time decisions that improve care delivery, with GE Healthcare named “2020 Global Company of the Year” by Frost & Sullivan – great recognition for our innovative and hardworking teams in these areas.

As we work toward our goals of delivering on the promise of precision health - making care more integrated, more efficient, and more personalized – we see ever more clearly that achieving this will require the integration of clinical medicine and data science. If we can apply advanced analytics and AI across each point of the patient journey, we can improve efficiency, workflow and outcomes. We’re working across the healthcare system to achieve this.

You can find more detail on GE Healthcare results and performance in Q1 here.

[1] The device has been verified for limited use outside of professional healthcare facilities. Use is restricted to environmental properties described in the user manual. Please contact your GE Healthcare sales representative for detailed information.

[2] StarGuide is CE marked. Available for sale in EU countries. Not for sale in the U.S and other non-EU countries.