Industry news: GE Healthcare and Capensis Management to bring State-of-the-Art Cardiology Solutions

According to this strategic agreement, GE Healthcare will supply all the cardiology departments of the new 250-bed hospital with a range of cardiology-related technology and equipment.

The hospital is currently under construction, and it is anticipated that it will open its doors to the community in mid-2008.

This is according to Marc Mougel, Zone Sales Manager for GE Healthcare, Sub-Saharan Africa.

GE Healthcare unveiled the cardiology unit at the launch of the new state-of-the-art facility, in conjunction with its partners at the Ethekwini Hospital and Heart Centre, South Africa's first black empowerment hospital with a cardiac centre of excellence.

“We are very proud to have been an integral part of this project,” said Mougel.

According to Isam Moursy, General Manager at GE Healthcare for the MEACAT region: “We consider this as a clear illustration of how technology facilitates GE's vision of an ‘early health' model of care. This early health approach to healthcare delivery has at its centre the concept that the diagnosis of disease at the earliest possible stage, when there can be many treatment options, is better medicine. The end result of this is providing healthcare professionals with new ways to predict, diagnose, treat and monitor, so their patients can live their lives to the fullest.”

Dr Diliza Mji, chairman of Capensis Management (Pty) Ltd, the company responsible for the construction of the hospital, comments: “Having GE Healthcare as a partner in this initiative strengthens our brand and, because both parties have as their vision an emphasis on excellence, we are closely aligned. The outcome of this project will be a facility that deploys the best in technology, skills and services, to ensure our patients' long-term health and wellbeing.”

“GE Healthcare will be supplying Responder automated external defibrillators, a range of MAC resting ECG systems, AISYS Carestation anaesthesia delivery and patient monitoring technology; as well as S/5 AESPIRE breathing systems and iMM Anesthesia Monitors for patient monitoring in the operating theatre and beyond,” explained Mougel.

Additional GE Healthcare technology made available through the unit will be: CIC Pro centralised patient monitoring systems, Dash portable patient monitors and Dinamap PRO400 vital sign montoring. Additional monitoring of patients' conditions will facilitated by using GE'sTrusat pulse oximeters, and Engstrom Carestation Critical Care Ventilator measuring lung volume and pressure.

“Furthermore, a range of infant-focused equipment is being supplied to EHHCby GE Healthcare such as the Giraffe Omnibed microenvironments, lightweight, fiberoptic Biliblankets for the treatment of jaundice, and Airborne intra-hospital transport systems,” GE Healthcare's Marc Mougel added.

In terms of diagnostic equipment, the facility will be provided with the Innova 2100 digital cardiovascular imaging system and the Centricity CARDDAS, in order to bridge the gap between cardiology modality devices (invasive, non-invasive, ultrasound) and the healthcare information system, ensuring efficiency and accurate diagnoses. GE Healthcare will also offer the Surgery C-Arm 1000 and FluoroStar 7900 as solutions for mobile fluoroscopic imaging systems, for navigation and 3D visualisation instrumentation for minimally invasive surgery.

“The key to GE Healthcare's early health approach is a total focus on the patient, to provide the most beneficial, and cost-effective treatment available; and to this end we are pleased to be working with such a dedicated team that have placed an emphasis on the patient at every step of the project, from the architecture of the building on through to the execution of the facility,” Mougel concluded.