Waukesha, WI., - The International Health and Medical Awards honored two health educational programs now airing on GE Healthcare’s The Patient Channel last week in New York City. The awards contest, known as the Freddie Awards, is a pre-eminent health and medical media competition with entries from around the world.

The Patient Channel received Finalist standings for both original programs. Preventing Leg Vein Problems, was a finalist in the Prevention category. This program emphasizes the risks of deep vein thrombosis for people that are immobilized for long periods of time, for example when they undergo surgery. The second Finalist, was for The Patient Channel’s Healthy Aging program in the Geriatrics category. The huge number of baby boomers are approaching 60 and living longer than ever before. Healthy Aging features tips on how to live healthy lives including proper nutrition, exercise, and disease management.

This is the third year in a row that The Patient Channel was honored in this competition for program excellence.

About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform and treat disease, so their 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 $15 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 43,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries.

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About The Patient Channel
GE Healthcare launched The Patient Channel on April 30, 2002 with patient educational programming to help U.S. hospitals provide credible, accurate and up-to-date information to patients and their families, caregivers, and friends. The television programming is seen in patient rooms and waiting areas.

Programming on the channel covers a wide spectrum of topics including heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis, cancer, asthma, smoking cessation, parenting, health/wellness, and other healthcare topics. The goal of the channel is to educate patients and their families and to increase their awareness of medical issues and treatment options. The educational content is meant to stimulate communication with healthcare providers, improve the ability to make informed decisions, and promote a sense of empowerment at the time when accurate information is most needed.

• Over 40 educational programs
• Broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• Spanish and English closed captioning available on all programs
• Provides reliable and focused patient education content
• Topics cover health and wellness topics selected with input from patient educators in our hospital network
• All content is developed according to the standards set and maintained by an external advisory board
• A web site for staff and patients, family and friends with applicable information before, during and after hospital stays

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