GE introduces affordable devices to sustain practice in remote areas, reduce maternal, child deaths

Amid the global call for accessible, affordable, qualitative and sustainable healthcare delivery, the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sustainable Healthcare Solutions, General Electric (GE) Healthcare, Terri Bresenham, has said that the company has come up with innovative technologies that are not only affordable, but also sustainable.
 
Bresenham said about 5.8 billion people globally, predominately in the low-income countries and other emerging markets, lack access to basic healthcare as a result of unaffordability.
 
She said GE has developed technologies that could be applied by trained non-medical personnel in remote settings and in primary health care (PHC) centres to deliver adequate healthcare especially in efforts aimed at reducing maternal and child deaths.
 
She said: “Sustainability comes by making it affordable, building skill sets around it and being able to build a system that can deliver care on a reliable basis.
 
“In skills developments, the GE is a strong component in developing the skills that it takes to build and as well as operate and maintain the healthcare system.
 
“We have designed systems to be much relevant for these markets, less expensive to operate, less use of electricity, better at simple ways of operating it. So that healthcare can be sustainable in parts of the country we are serving.”
 
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care, with expertise in diagnostic imaging, medical diagnostics, healthcare Information Technology (IT) and the life-sciences, 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.
 
Bresenham drives regional leadership of GE Healthcare’s operations in India and South Asia, Africa and Southeast Asia, focusing on addressing customer needs across these regions and working with governments, clinicians, private operators and Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to support their complete healthcare system development; from start-up phase through to established healthcare infrastructure build out.
 
She also revealed the training of high school girls and bio medical engineers that will help in disseminating the technology and encouraged women to embrace healthcare practice.
 
Bresenham added: “If you look at who consumes healthcare, its majority is women and children and children healthcare deliveries are largely carried out by the mothers. So when we think about any system, the end user of that system should be the people making decisions and policies.”
 
The GE boss said the response of the government is very progressive, in the way they think about partnering with other groups which can help bring about the change in the healthcare delivery system, and also they have been extremely aware of the ideas that need to be sustainable in this project in the appointed time.
 
Her words: “Recently the project we talked about, we signed a five year deal with the government. We also partner with other groups in the local market and other distributors and companies that are working in this sphere so as to able to make healthcare delivery sustainable.”
 
Terri is passionate about healthcare and global health issues and has devoted more than 25 years to the field. She started her career as a clinical chemist, joined GE as an “Edison Engineer” and progressed through engineering and product management roles in Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Computed Tomography and Positron Emission Tomography. She also led GE’s United States (U.S.) Women’s Health business, and global businesses including GE Ultrasound and GE Molecular Imaging.
 
Read more at http://guardian.ng/features/how-to-make-healthcare-delivery-sustainable/