GE Healthcare intros Vscan

NEW DELHI, INDIA: GE Healthcare, the 17 billion healthcare division of General Electric Company today announced the launch of Vscan, a new, revolutionary, pocket-sized visualization tool developed to provide physicians with imaging capabilities at the point-of-care.

Roughly the size of a smart phone, Vscan houses 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.  A tool like this can help facilitate detection of diseases at an earlier stage and help people lead a healthy life.  Health is not only a desirable, but an essential priority for India to grow into a super economy” said Dr. P C Reddy, Executive Chairman, Apollo Hospitals.

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.