GE Healthcare and Sprint Deliver Enhanced Wireless Connectivity to Hospitals Across North America

Uninterrupted communication within a hospital is a requirement for physicians, patients and visitors and is essential to quality care. Sprint (NYSE: S) and GE Healthcare announced today their collaboration to provide in-building wireless communications services to hospitals in North America. Patients, clinicians and hospital visitors will benefit from secure, reliable voice and data communications, supporting an environment conducive to higher levels of patient care.

Historically, the use of mobile phones in hospitals has been limited due to unreliable wireless support and the risk of interference between wireless phones and medical equipment. Using the new combined offering, physicians and caregivers will be able to communicate amongst each other and securely access patient information from almost anywhere in the facility.

The new in-building cellular communications network from GE Healthcare and Sprint’s Custom Network Solution (CNS) team leverages GE’s CARESCAPE™ Enterprise Access™, a single, universal wireless platform powered by MobileAccess, and includes Sprint handsets. This solution will provide hospitals with a comprehensive platform for voice and data communications over secure cellular, Wi-Fi and telemetry infrastructure that requires only one installation. Using the combined offering, clinicians, patients and hospital visitors can communicate more efficiently and with ease.

“Sprint CNS provides scalable coverage and a high-capacity platform for wireless voice and data services on the Sprint National Network and Nextel National Network, enhancing the mobility and productivity of staff at hospitals and other businesses,” says Darlene Braunschweig, vice president of CNS at Sprint. “We are very excited to partner with GE Healthcare to provide differentiated and innovative mobile solutions that are critical for every business. This new solution facilitates constant communication of secure information amongst hospital staff; an aspect very critical to patient care.”

GE CARESCAPE Enterprise Access, built on the MobileAccess technology platform, enables critical patient data to be securely coordinated, managed and distributed without the type of communications failures, interference or interruptions that can be caused by un-integrated systems. It is designed to transparently incorporate new systems and services without the need to install parallel, standalone infrastructures. CARESCAPE Enterprise Access is part of GE Healthcare’s CARESCAPE portfolio, an integrated suite of patient monitoring devices, communications networks and IT systems designed to transform traditional patient monitoring data into clinical intelligence. The CARESCAPE portfolio, released in May 2007, reflects a new approach to patient monitoring that provides clinicians with the opportunity to act earlier in the care process when compared to traditional patient monitoring and communication methods.

“The CARESCAPE portfolio represents our commitment to providing customers with a wide range of products and services that work together to help clinicians improve patient care,” said Munesh Makhija, General Manager of Systems and Wireless for GE Healthcare’s Monitoring Solutions business. “Our agreement with Sprint reflects this commitment. By harnessing the power of in-building cellular communications, hospitals will be able to offer secure, reliable voice and data communications throughout a campus, which can support improved communication and ultimately, patient outcomes.”

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.

ABOUT SPRINT NEXTEL

Sprint CNS is a leader in providing enhanced in-building and campus-wide network consulting, integration and fixed mobile convergence solutions. Sprint designs, deploys and maintains wireless networks and mobility solutions that deliver the productivity and efficiency of voice and data communications to virtually anywhere a business and their employees need them. Sprint’s CNS team offers 24/7 technical support and manages all stages of the customer deployment process, from the initial requirements assessment through installation and deployment with consultant-grade methods, procedures and tools. For more information about Sprint CNS, please visit www.sprint.com/cns.

Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including two robust wireless networks serving 54 million customers at the end of the second quarter 2007; industry-leading mobile data services; instant national and international walkie-talkie capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. For more information, visit www.sprint.com.

GE Healthcare Financial Services Closes $3.3 Million Deal with BioStorage Technologies

GE Healthcare Financial Services has provided a $3.3 million lease line of credit to BioStorage Technologies (BST). The Indianapolis, IN.-based company is a worldwide leader in short-term and long-term biomaterials storage, sample management and cold chain logistics. They will use the loan to support additional BST capital acquisitions.

In the near future, BST plans to purchase additional walk-in and stand-alone freezer units, back-up generators, liquid nitrogen tanks and other equipment to meet growing customer demands. In addition, BST will continue to build out its information technology infrastructure and software development needs.

“Having a strategic partner like GE Healthcare Financial Services has given us the financial flexibility to grow and execute our vision for the future,” said F. John Mills, M.D., Ph.D., BST’s chairman and chief executive officer. “GE HFS’ focus on helping us solve our financing needs allows us to create a broader leadership position in the drug research and development market.”

“GE Healthcare Financial Services is very pleased to have entered into a long-term partnership with BioStorage Technologies and we are focused on providing financial services that help them grow,” said Anthony Storino, senior managing director for GE Healthcare Financial Services’ life science finance group. “Our industry expertise and financial strength enabled us to quickly structure a tailored financing solution that recognized BioStorage Technologies’ current position in the market and will grow with their business.”

About GE Healthcare Financial Services

GE Healthcare Financial Services is a provider of capital, financial solutions, and related services for the global healthcare market. With over $16 billion of capital committed to the healthcare industry, GE Healthcare Financial Services offers a full range of capabilities from equipment financing and real estate financing to working capital lending, vendor programs, and practice acquisition financing. With its knowledge of all aspects of healthcare from hospitals and long-term care facilities to physicians’ practices and life sciences, GE Healthcare Financial Services works with customers to create tailored financial solutions that help them improve their productivity and profitability. For more information, visit http://www.gehealthcarefinance.com

GE Scientists Discover that Nanostructures on the Surface of Butterfly Wings Exhibit Acute Chemical Sensing Capabilities

GE Global Research, the centralized research organization of the General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), today announced researchers have discovered that the nanostructures on the wing scales of butterflies exhibit high-performance optical properties that facilitate a selective detection of vapors. The finding could lead to the design of highly acute chemical sensors for diverse vapor-detection applications ranging from security to manufacturing and healthcare.

GE’s research team, led by Dr. Radislav Potyrailo, an analytical chemist in the Chemical and Biological Sensing Laboratory at Global Research’s headquarters in Niskayuna, reported its discovery in the latest issue of the journal, Nature Photonics. The article is this month’s featured cover story and can be accessed at the following link: http://www.nature.com/nphoton/index.html

Dr. Potyrailo said, “Nano-scale features created by nature are providing countless discoveries and stimulate our research into new, exciting technological areas. We have found that nanostructures on the wing scales of tropical Morpho butterflies exhibit optical properties that provide a highly selective response to chemical vapors. The challenge now is finding a way to mimic nature and to design acute and robust chemical sensors that will offer new attractive sensing solutions in the marketplace. That is what we are focused on solving.”

Dr. Potyrailo cited a review article that appeared in the journal Nature in 2003 by Pete Vukusic and J. Roy Sambles, titled “Photonic structures in biology,” which inspired his research on the wing scales of butterflies for vapor detection. The article discussed the nano-scale photonic structures in butterfly wings and the blue iridescence that they produced. “After initial careful experiments, it was clear that the underlying optical properties exhibited by the nanostructures on butterfly wings could offer a promising route to highly selective chemical sensing capabilities,” Dr. Potyrailo said.

Dr. Potyrailo assembled a research team that explored further the origin and details of this unique selective vapor response of butterfly wing scales. The team included Professor Helen Ghiradella from the Department of Biological Sciences, University at Albany; and Alexei Vertiatchikh, Katharine Dovidenko, Eric Olson, and James Cournoyer from GE Global Research.

Dr. Potyrailo noted that fabricating the photonic nanostructures found in butterfly wings will be very challenging, but commercial applications could reach the market within the next five years. The discovery is one in a growing list of breakthroughs that GE researchers have made in the field of nanotechnology:

For chemical and biological sensing, GE scientists in the Research Center’s Chemical and Biological Sensing, Nanotechnology, and Microstructural and Surface Sciences Labs have developed a suite of nanocomposite and nanostructured materials. These materials utilize multisize semiconductor nanocrystals in polymer films and core/shell colloidal crystal films to create selective gas nanosensors, highly stable tags for surface-enhanced Raman biosensing and bioassays, and nanostructured metal films for improved label-free biosensing.
In 2005, GE Global Research announced the development of an ideal carbon nanotube diode that operates at the “theoretical limit,” or best possible performance, which will enable smaller and faster electronic devices with increased functionality.
In another example of biomimicry, within the past two years, GE scientists in the Research Center’s Nanotechnology Lab have been able to replicate the super-water repellant effect of the Lotus leaf on both plastic and metal. The super water-repellant effect exhibits a self-cleaning feature of washing dirt and particles from the surface of a material when a water-based liquid hits it. GE scientists are exploring potential applications in aviation and energy, where self-cleaning parts could greatly enhance the efficiency of such products as a gas turbine or aircraft engine.
In the January 2007 issue of the journal, Nature Nanotechnology, scientists in GE’s Nanotechnology Lab reported on a promising breakthrough in nanotechnology they made that provides a direct pathway to making nanoceramic materials from polymeric precursors. Developing processes and a greater understanding of nano-engineered ceramics could lead to future applications in aviation and energy, where products such as aircraft engines and gas turbines could one day achieve new levels of efficiency, reliability and environmental performance.


About GE Global Research:

GE Global Research was the first industrial research lab in the United States and is one of the world's most diversified research centers, providing innovative technology for all of GE's businesses. Global Research has been the cornerstone of GE technology for more than 100 years, developing breakthrough innovations in areas such as medical imaging, energy generation technology, jet engines, advanced materials and lighting. GE Global Research is headquartered in Niskayuna, New York and has facilities in Bangalore, India; Shanghai, China; and Munich, Germany. Visit GE Global Research at www.ge.com/research