MILWAUKEE -- GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), today announced the first patient scans using GE’s revolutionary new CT scanner, LightSpeed VCT, at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee. The LightSpeed VCT, available nationwide in late 2004, has the potential to transform the way doctors are able to diagnose and treat heart disease and other life-threatening illnesses.

The LightSpeed VCT is able to noninvasively capture any organ in one second, scan the whole body in less than 10 seconds, and capture images of the heart and coronaries in fewer than five heartbeats, something no other CT system can offer.

In a single rotation, the system creates 64 credit card-thin images, totaling 40 millimeters of anatomical coverage. These images are combined to form a three-dimensional view of the patient’s anatomy for the physician to analyze.

“GE Healthcare’s relationship with Froedtert and the local launch of this globally beneficial product is testimony to our company’s commitment to develop and deliver innovative, lifesaving technologies that benefit both doctors and patients,” said Joe Hogan, president and CEO of GE Healthcare Technologies. “Patients at Froedtert can now have access to faster, noninvasive diagnostic scans and path to treatment when CT imaging is prescribed.”

Breakthrough Technology, Breakthrough Applications

Already, the LightSpeed VCT scanner is demonstrating to Froedtert physicians its ability to capture images quickly and sharply.

“This is clearly the beginning of a new imaging era,” said W. Dennis Foley, M.D., chief of Digital Imaging at Froedtert Hospital and professor of radiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. “This system provides unprecedented image quality almost instantaneously, which should provide significant impact in cardiovascular medicine and trauma. Though its impact may be most significant in trauma and cardiovascular medicine, the LightSpeed VCT also should improve imaging in neurology, oncology and other fields.”

Through collaboration with thought leaders on CT from Froedtert and around the world, GE Healthcare has identified opportunities for new and improved diagnostic applications for the LightSpeed VCT, based on its coverage, speed and resolution capabilities.

5-Beat Cardiac™
Heart motion has historically made CT cardiovascular scans challenging and prone to motion artifacts. The LightSpeed VCT will enable physicians to secure extremely high-quality images of coronaries at submillimeter resolution in only five beats of the heart. This capability will potentially make diagnostic evaluation of arterial stenosis faster and less invasive than catheter angiography.

Triple RuleOut™
Patients exhibiting acute chest pain in the emergency room may be able to be diagnostically scanned quickly and noninvasively, using the LightSpeed VCT, for evidence of heart attack, pulmonary embolism or aortic dissection, the three most life-threatening causes of chest pain, all in one single scan. A doctor’s ability to identify the cause of acute chest pain and eliminate unnecessary hospital stays and missed diagnoses is invaluable.

Stroke Work-Up
Once a stroke occurs, it is commonly believed that treatment must be delivered within an hour or less to ensure the best outcome for the patient. Current diagnostic imaging procedures are complex. LightSpeed VCT offers the speed and resolution required for rapid examination of blood vessels in the brain (perfusion studies), enabling doctors to make a quick diagnosis of stroke and extent of damage, and may help make this complex procedure easier and more routine.

Rewarding Relationship with Froedtert Hospital and the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee
The LightSpeed VCT is the sixth new LightSpeed CT product developed by GE Healthcare to be installed for clinical use first at Froedtert Hospital. For the past 22 years, GE Healthcare has worked with faculty physicians at the Medical College of Wisconsin and tapped Froedtert Hospital as the primary clinical site for the company’s CT imaging equipment. Froedtert was the first hospital in the country to install a multislice scanner in 1998 and a 16-slice multidetector-row CT scanner in 2003, and now becomes the first global site to install a Volume CT scanner.

“Our relationship with GE Healthcare has allowed us to provide cutting-edge diagnostic and therapeutic tools to Froedtert’s patients, and has helped facilitate Wisconsin’s efforts to become a hub of modern healthcare and technology advancement to the world,” Dr. Foley said.

The LightSpeed VCT installed at Froedtert also will be made available to other leading physicians for collection of clinical data and documentation of best practices for improved diagnosis of disease and injury, particularly among trauma patients experiencing cardiovascular and neurological symptoms.

“Froedtert is more than a local hospital and GE Healthcare partner,” Hogan said. “It is a teaching hospital staffed by faculty physicians from the Medical College of Wisconsin. Froedtert is a modern and progressive hospital that offers GE Healthcare access to highly trained, innovative physicians who are motivated to provide their patients with the best technology for diagnosis and treatment of disease and injury.”

About Froedtert Hospital
Froedtert Hospital is a 424 bed academic medical center staffed by faculty of the Medical College of Wisconsin. It serves as an eastern Wisconsin referral center for advanced medical practice care in 37 specialties and subspecialties. It is a major training and research facility with more than 1,000 medical, nursing and health technical students in training and over 2,000 active clinical trials each year. Froedtert, a member of Froedtert & Community Health, operates the region’s only adult Level One Trauma Center. For more information about Froedtert & Medical College, visit www.froedtert.com.

About the Medical College of Wisconsin
The Medical College of Wisconsin is a national, private, academic institution dedicated to leadership and excellence in its fourfold mission: Education, Research, Patient Care and Community Service. Its core competency is medical knowledge, which underpins every aspect of its mission. Its 1,000 full-time physicians and scientists teach 12,000 medical and graduate students, 715 physician-residents in training, and more than 12,000 health professional registrants who annually attend continuing education courses. As a major national research center, Medical College faculty received more than $119 million in external support for research and training grants in fiscal year 2002-2003. The Medical College’s 700 plus faculty physicians provide care to more than 260,000 patients annually, including at Froedtert Hospital, its major hospital affiliate. For more information about the Medical College of Wisconsin, visit www.mcw.edu.

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: Shannon Troughton, 262-548-2654, shannon.troughton@med.ge.com