Seeing is Believing: Mount Sinai School of Medicine Aims to Revolutionize Medical School Program

Press release:

14 September 2012

Seeing is Believing: Mount Sinai School of Medicine Aims to Revolutionize Medical School Program

 

Class of 2016 Medical Students to Participate in Research Study Involving GE Pocket-Sized Ultrasound

New York City, NY September 14, 2012 – First-year medical students at Mount Sinai School of Medicine will be the first in New York to be introduced to a digital-age ultrasound device that can visualize inside the body, and fit directly into the pockets of their brand new white coats.

The visualization tool, made by GE Healthcare, is a handheld ultrasound device called Vscan*, and is roughly the footprint of a smartphone. The Vscan houses innovative technology that can provide an immediate, non-invasive method to secure visual information from inside the body. A total of 72 pocket-sized devices will be provided for use in a research study[1] and distributed to teams of first year medical school students that make up the 140-member Class of 2016. The objective of the study is to demonstrate that handheld imaging technology can contribute to medical education at all levels of instruction and learning.

At the beginning of each academic year, first-year medical students at Mount Sinai School of Medicine participate in a medical school tradition that kicks off their medical career—the White Coat Ceremony. After listening to inspirational speeches, students don their new white coats and receive a stethoscope at a special ceremony attended by family, friends and faculty members. During this momentous day, students, parents and faculty will also be introduced to the handheld ultrasound.

“First year medical students traditionally learn about the human body by dissecting the cadavers and eventually by examining the patients, and the examination ranges from inspection and palpation to listening with the help of a stethoscope and interpreting the sounds of the heart, lungs and blood vessels,” says Jagat Narula, MD, PhD, who is the Principal Investigator of this research study and the Director of the Cardiovascular Imaging Program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. “With handheld ultrasound, our medical students will have the ability to see live images of inside the body projected onto a handheld screen in real time. It’s an innovative educational concept that can modernize medical education.” In fact, Narula believes that imaging and specifically handheld devices will become an integral part of the physical examination.

As part of the study, handheld ultrasound will be added to the curriculum of first year students during their Art and Science of Medicine (ASM) courses to augment their physical examination skills. Groups of four students will share the device as they learn about the capabilities of ultrasound.

David Muller, MD, the Dean of Medical Education at Mount Sinai School of Medicine says of the research study, “First year medical students will learn how to identify and assess the anatomical structures within cardiac, thoracic and abdominal applications. We are excited to incorporate the portable ultrasound in our curriculum as we strive to revolutionize the way medicine is taught.”

“Today, we are thrilled to play a part in this important research project by providing Mount Sinai’s first-year medical students with the power of portable ultrasound technology, as they take the first step towards becoming our next generation of doctors,” says Tom Gentile, President and CEO, GE Healthcare Systems. “Tools like Vscan have the ability to help transform the physical exam and today’s announcement reaffirms GE Healthcare’s commitment to research and improving patient care by helping enhance the physician’s ability to quickly and accurately diagnose patients.”

Commercially launched in February 2010 by GE, this device offers applications in cardiology, emergency medicine, primary care and obstetrics applications. Through the study, as an educational tool at Mount Sinai, students will use hand-held ultrasound to examine the real-life anatomy and physiology of healthy subjects and then apply this base knowledge to their studies.

“We expect that using handheld ultrasound will bring our students’ education to an innovative new level,” said Brett Nelson, MD, Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Mount Sinai, who will be leading the new curriculum with Dr. Narula. “Having exposure to this ultrasound technology early in their medical education will provide our first-year students with skills that they will carry with them throughout their careers.”

About The Mount Sinai Medical Center

The Mount Sinai Medical Center encompasses both The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Established in 1968, Mount Sinai School of Medicine is one of the leading medical schools in the United States. The Medical School is noted for innovation in education, biomedical research, clinical care delivery, and local and global community service. It has more than 3,400 faculty in 32 departments and 14 research institutes, and ranks among the top 20 medical schools both in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding and by U.S. News & World Report.

The Mount Sinai Hospital, founded in 1852, is a 1,171-bed tertiary- and quaternary-care teaching facility and one of the nation’s oldest, largest and most-respected voluntary hospitals. In 2012, U.S. News & World Reportranked The Mount Sinai Hospital 14th on its elite Honor Roll of the nation’s top hospitals based on reputation, safety, and other patient-care factors. Mount Sinai is one of 12 integrated academic medical centers whose medical school ranks among the top 20 in NIH funding and by U.S. News & World Report and whose hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll. Nearly 60,000 people were treated at Mount Sinai as inpatients last year, and approximately 560,000 outpatient visits took place.

For more information, visit http://www.mountsinai.org/.

Find Mount Sinai on:

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*Trademark of General Electric Company.

**As a research institution and medical school, Mount Sinai does not endorse specific products.

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[1] Study Name is Operation Seeing is Believing (SIB) by SINAI R-ME

GE ultrasound equipment give equestrian stars another shot at gold

Press release:

08 August 2012

GE ultrasound equipment give equestrian stars another shot at gold

 

GE Ultrasound system LOGIQ e VET used to help diagnose injured equine athletes at London 2012

London, United Kingdom, 8 August 2012 – Organizers of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games have ensured that even the equine athletes receive excellent care. A purpose-built veterinary clinic in Greenwich has been kitted out with innovative equipment to treat horses from competing nations.

The challenging cross-country phase at Greenwich Park for example, saw 15 riders fall during the Olympic eventing competition. While the injuries sustained in a cross country accident can be career ending, access to the very latest imaging technology can help vets facilitate a swift and accurate diagnosis and a more positive outcome.

The clinic is equipped with the GE Ultrasound machine - the GELOGIQ e VET (for musculoskeletal and abdominal scanning). This machine was commissioned to help meet the need for pre-set equipment supported by BCF Technology.

Additional benefits include:

• Excellent image quality, allowing the exact location of strains and lesions to be identified
• Small and portable, making it possible to use the equipment in any clinical environment

• Reductions in scan time. This machine produces high quality images quickly without machine settings having to be optimized.
• Coded harmonic imaging on all probes to help deliver excellent image quality
• CrossXBeam™ imaging, providing high resolution images of equine distal limb and stifle
• Deep musculoskeletal imaging for imaging fractures of pelvis or ribs which cannot be radiographed effectively due to the dimensions of the horse

Said Roy Tappin, General Manager, Ultrasound, GE Healthcare, UK & Ireland:

“GE Healthcare is proud to be providing some of our latest imaging technology to the London 2012 Equine Clinic and the Polyclinic as part of GE’s sponsorship of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. While we specialize in products for use in human medicine, the veterinary market is extremely important to us and we currently supply our equipment to many of the world’s leading veterinary hospitals. Many of the UK’s top vets specify our machines because they produce high quality images which help them make a more confident diagnosis.”

Professor Roger Smith, Professor of Equine Orthopaedics at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), is a frequent user of GE imaging equipment and one of the specialists working at the Equine Clinic during the Games. Speaking about the technology he commented:

“The GE Healthcare diagnostic ultrasound equipment used at the Equine Clinic is essential for evaluating the tendon and ligament injuries to which competition horses are prone. The quality of the images it produces helps us decide on the best possible treatment for the horse, giving it the greatest chance of full recovery.”

Gaynor Minshall of the Veterinary Services team at the London 2012 Olympic Games said:

“There are a lot of reasons for us to have ultrasound imaging equipment here at the Equine Clinic. We use this primarily for musculoskeletal imaging and for assessing any trauma sustained during events such as cross-country, this helps in establishing a diagnosis enabling the best possible treatment.”

About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance solutions services help our customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In addition, we partner with healthcare leaders, striving to leverage the global policy change necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable healthcare systems.

Our “healthymagination” vision for the future invites the world to join us on our journey as we continuously develop innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality around the world. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employees are committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries.  For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com.

For our latest news, please visithttp://newsroom.gehealthcare.com/http://newsroom.gehealthcare.com

News Release from GE Healthcare

14 March 2012

GE Healthcare and Intel to Establish Companies’ First Joint Technology Evaluation Laboratory in Israel

 

GE Healthcare and Intel to establish evaluation lab in Israel to align and optimize the companies' products.

14, March, 2012 Haifa, ISRAEL -- GE Healthcare, the healthcare division of General Electric and Intel Corporation announced today the creation of an evaluation lab in Israel in an effort to jointly test new technologies. The lab is located at the GE Healthcare premises in Tirat Carmel, in close proximity to the Intel R&D center in Haifa, with managers and employees from both companies leading the activities in the collaboration. The lab will focus on aligning and optimizing the companies’ products, such as Intel’s microprocessor technologies and GE Healthcare’s healthcare products, including ultrasound diagnostic imaging systems.

“The long term objective of this collaboration is to scale these activities to other GE product areas and use the lab as a worldwide hub for all Intel technologies and expertise,” said Michelle Tinsley, general manager of Intel’s Intelligent Systems Group. “As leaders in our respective industries, Intel and GE Healthcare aim to bring truly innovative technologies to the medical imaging industry.”
As part of the collaboration, GE Healthcare and Intel will provide technology and expertise support. In addition, GE Healthcare will provide hosting and operational management for the facility.
“This is an exciting collaboration between two global companies who are industry leaders in technology innovation,” said Mike Harsh, GE Vice President and GE Healthcare Chief Technology Officer. “The hope is that this partnership between GE and Intel will lead to the development of affordable and advanced healthcare technologies that ultimately will bring better healthcare to more people around the world.”