Assisting veterinary doctors with early diagnosis of equine tendon and ligament injuries, GE Healthcare’s LOGIQ e, a compact ultrasound system, will be used as first point-of-care within equine medicine
GE Healthcare, the US$17 billion healthcare business of General Electric Company (GE), announced today the use of its LOGIQ e, a leading compact ultrasound system, during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games at Hong Kong’s Olympic Equestrian Venue, Sha Tin. The innovative, compact ultrasound system will be available to all national team veterinary doctors, caring for over 200 horses competing in the Beijing Games, to help identify early signs of tendon and ligament injuries as well as other health markers that affect performance such as infection, bruising at the surface of the bone, or the mapping of blood flow. GE Healthcare’s LOGIQ e has high-quality imaging capability, operates on battery power alone for approximately one hour, and is easily carried to where it’s needed, when it’s needed, due to its laptop size. This results in safe and versatile applicability in medical imaging, making it an important tool in equine scanning. "A large effort has been made to ensure the horses’ welfare is given top priority throughout the Beijing Games", said Dr. Chris Riggs, Olympic Veterinary Services Manager and Head of Veterinary Clinical Services at the Hong Kong Jockey Club. "This includes the construction of a dedicated Olympic Veterinary Clinic, which is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities. The LOGIQ e ultrasound machine is an invaluable tool in our array of diagnostic facilities. Image quality is excellent and the user-friendly platform facilitates easy use by many different veterinary surgeons. In addition, the machine is easily portable, which is extremely useful given the multiple venues involved during the Games." The evolution of ultrasound in recent years has positioned this imaging technology as a unique and valuable tool within sports medicine. Today, more and more clinicians are trading in their 400-pound hospital-based equipment for a more portable, more affordable healthcare solution. Conventionally sized diagnostic imaging equipment provides difficulties when imaging large animals, but the convenient size of compact ultrasound allows high-quality imaging of hard-to-reach anatomy. “GE Healthcare’s compact ultrasound systems have been used within sports medicine and on elite athletes since the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games. Today, we are very pleased to have our compact ultrasound used for the first time within equine medicine in the Olympic Movement. We are honored that our technologies will support the team veterinary surgeons with advanced ultrasound for use on all of the Olympic horses coming to compete in China” said Yusaku Isa, Director, Clinical Systems Asia, GE Healthcare. Historically, commentary on the Olympic Games has been directed towards the accomplishments of human athletes. The medal count acknowledges the countries and the individuals that top the podium; however, another element needs to be considered, the competing horses. Injuries can happen at any time and just this month, Zara Phillips, the 27-year old royal, world champion three-day eventer tipped to win a gold medal at the Beijing Games, has been forced to pull out of the Olympic Games after her horse got injured during training.
About the Hong Kong Jockey Club
The Hong Kong Jockey Club is one of the largest racing organizations in the world. Under its unique not-for-profit business model, the Club's surpluses go to charitable and community projects. Over the past decade, the Club has donated an average of one billion Hong Kong dollars every year to hundreds of charities and community projects. The equestrian events of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and Paralympics will be held in Hong Kong at venues provided by The Hong Kong Jockey Club. www.hkjc.org.cn
About GE and the Olympic Games
GE is the exclusive provider of a wide range of innovative products and services that are integral to staging a successful Olympic Games. GE works closely with host countries, cities and organizing committees to provide infrastructure solutions for Olympic venues including power, lighting, water treatment, transportation and security, and to supply hospitals with ultrasound and MRI equipment to help doctors treat athletes. In addition, NBC Universal, a division of GE, is the exclusive U.S. media partner of the Olympic Games, with its partnership also extending through 2012. For more information, visit www.ge.com/olympicgames.
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 enables 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. PRESS CONTACTS Pilar Anton Serrano +33 1 30 70 99 90 +33 6 65 87 47 51 (mobile) pilar [dot] antonserrano [at] ge [dot] com
