U.S. FDA Approves GE Healthcare’s Newest Mobile Mammography System for Improved Access to Breast Care

GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), today announced that it has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its new mobile mammography product that will improve access to breast cancer screening for millions of women around the world. The mobile Senographe® Essential is built on the company’s Senographe Essential platform, the next-generation of GE’s proven Senographe Full Field Digital Mammography systems.

As medical organizations continue to offer full-field digital mammography in a mobile setting, GE Healthcare’s newest mobile unit will feature the largest digital detector in the mammography market, advanced ergonomic design for the technologist, optimized patient comfort and seamless workflow connectivity. The foundation of the Senographe Essential imaging excellence is GE’s advanced digital detector, which delivers the industry's highest Detective Quantum Efficiency (DQE) - the standard for quantifying digital X-ray image quality - at low doses.

“GE’s goal is to enhance breast care for women worldwide and bring this technology to those who otherwise would not have access to it,” said David Caumartin, general manager of Global Mammography for GE Healthcare. “GE offers customers the broadest portfolio when it comes to breast imaging and the new mobile Essential will be the top of the line mobile product in the market featuring all the proven advantages of our Senographe platform.”

First Mobile Essential in Seattle

A study published in May 2007 by the National Cancer Institute found that use of mammography screening had dropped four percent from 2000 to 2005. In 2005, only 70 percent of women surveyed for the study reported getting an annual mammogram. During the same timeframe, among women 50-64, the group most at risk for breast cancer, screening was down 7 percent, from 79 percent to 72 percent.

According to the American Cancer Society, mammography rates in Washington state are also below the national average. In a 2005-2006 study, only 56.3 percent of women 40-64, who are most at risk for breast cancer, were screened. The national average was 60.5 percent. To combat the low numbers and to improve the overall health of women in the area, Connie Lehman, M.D., Ph.D., director of radiology at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and professor and vice chair of radiology, section head of breast imaging, at the University of Washington School of Medicine, will take an active approach toward improving breast cancer screening rates.

Courtesy of a month-long fundraising campaign sponsored by the Seattle Division of Safeway Inc. and supported by its employees and customers along with a corporate grant from the Safeway Foundation to acquire a van for the mobile Essential unit, Lehman will be able to hold breast-screening clinics at locations around the Seattle region. Eventually Lehman will be scheduling visits to cities throughout western Washington.

“Women living in the state of Washington have higher rates of breast cancer compared to the rest of the country,” said Lehman. “And yet, compared to the rest of the country, we also have fewer women receiving regular screening mammography. We have an opportunity with this program to provide more women the opportunity to be screened with the latest technology for early detection of breast cancer. This is our way of removing some of the barriers preventing women from having screening mammograms. We are delighted to partner with GE and Safeway to make a difference for women and their families in our community.”

About GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, performance improvement, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform, treat and monitor disease, so patients can live their lives to the fullest.

GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases and other conditions earlier. Our vision for the future is to enable a new "early health" model of care focused on earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection and disease prevention. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people 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.