WASHINGTON D.C. -- The Mac-Lab® hemodynamic monitoring system is now used in over 50 percent of the cath labs in U.S. News Best Hospitals 2004 Top 50 Heart and Heart Surgery Hospitals, up from 36 percent one year ago, according to an analysis by GE Healthcare. In addition, the company’s CardioLab® electrophysiology (EP) monitoring system increased its dominant penetration to over 80 percent among the U.S. News Heart and Heart Surgery hospitals, up from 74 percent in 2003.

GE Healthcare also announced that the company has shipped more than 300 orders for its new Mac-Lab IT and CardioLab IT system, introduced one year ago.

“The rapid and broad acceptance of these heart-care technologies is the best possible evidence that they meet clinicians’ need for tools that increase accuracy and efficiency in patient care and enhance productivity in clinical workflow,” said Laura King, Global Vice President and General Manager of Interventional, Cardiology and Surgery at GE Healthcare.

Mac-Lab IT integrates hemodynamic monitoring with the Centricity Cardiology Information System, enabling accurate and consistent capture of case information at the point of care. Besides performing monitoring, it gathers information that can be used later for clinical reports, inventory statistics and management, billing and charge capture, and American College of Cardiology (ACC) registry benchmarking.

With the Mac-Lab system, the efficiency of the cath lab is maximized as cases can begin and conclude outside the lab. The Mac-Lab IT provides clear, easy to view windows for quick access to information. It includes efficient data entry that allows several users to simultaneously edit information, a Microsoft Word based patient report and flexible ways to save patient data and view it remotely. Real-time data acquisition features include 12-lead ECG, continuous ST segment analysis, respiration rate, cardiac output, SpO2, non-invasive blood pressure, and up to four invasive pressures via an integrated multi-parameter TRAM module.

The CardioLab system offers up to 128 bi-polar channel recording with 224 catheter inputs, interface with the Freezor® cryoablation system from CryoCath Technologies, bi-directional interface with the CARTO® XP Navigation and Ablation System from Biosense Webster, Inc. a Johnson & Johnson company, with built-in expandability to meet users’ needs.

Each year, U.S News publishes its Best Hospitals ranking, identifying the top 50 hospitals in the United States in 17 specialties.

About GE Healthcare:

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies that will shape a new age of patient care. GE Healthcare’s expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, disease research, drug discovery and biopharmaceuticals is dedicated to detecting disease earlier and tailoring treatment for individual patients. GE Healthcare offers a broad range of services to improve productivity in healthcare and enable healthcare providers to better diagnose, treat and manage patients with conditions such as cancer, Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular diseases.

GE Healthcare is a $14 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) that is headquartered in the United Kingdom. Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 42,500 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.

Contact:
Britt Zarling - 262-544-3453; britt.zarling@ge.com