MUNICH, Germany -- General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) GE Healthcare introduced at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2004 the GE Ohmeda TruSat™ pulse oximeter, combining the capabilities of a portable, tough handheld unit with a high-performing tabletop oximeter designed to noninvasively monitor the arterial oxygen saturation of a patient’s blood.

Intended for everyday use, the GE TruSat is a true hybrid, enabling one oximeter to follow a patient throughout the entire hospital stay. This allows clinicians to continuously monitor their patients’ oxygen saturation wherever they may need to go in the hospital, from emergency room to critical care to general ward.

Recognized worldwide as the standard of care in anesthesiology, pulse oximetry is widely used in intensive care, operating and emergency rooms, patient transport, general wards, labor and delivery, neonatal care, sleep labs, home care, and in veterinary medicine. It provides early information to clinicians on problems in the delivery of oxygen to patient tissues.

“Designing an oximeter to withstand the demands of clinical situations translates to super-durability,” said Rick Brandl, General Manager of Oximetry for GE Healthcare. “We want clinicians to focus their attention on the patient with the confidence of knowing the oximeter is always available and working.”

The first of its kind, the GE TruSat looks completely different from – and is half the weight of – a typical oximeter, while offering GE’s TruSignal™ Enhanced SpO2 technology to perform throughout challenging situations, including clinical motion and low perfusion. With ultra-low-noise technology, TruSignal selects the appropriate clinically developed algorithm to compensate for weak or motion-induced signals, and generate reliable saturation readings.

TruSat also offers the proprietary relative perfusion index measurement feature, PI_r® which provides a quantitative assessment of blood flow at the sensor site.

The GE TruSat oximeter’s versatility is demonstrated in additional features such as a battery life that surpasses other tabletop oximeters and the optional Trend Download software on CD-ROM, whereby clinicians can transfer SpO2 data to a PC and generate comprehensive reports traditionally used in sleep studies.

“We work in a very difficult environment and need the most reliable equipment. The GE TruSat is very easy to use and its mobility and extended battery life make transporting the oximeter stress-free,” said Pilar Quilez, Neonatology Department, Hospital la Paz, Madrid, Spain. “The TruSat pulse oximeter also has excellent performance in neonates, especially in motion episodes and in low perfusion patients.”

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@med.ge.com