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GE Healthcare aims to cross billion barrier

By Liu Jie (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-21 07:48

Medical reform

The Chinese government announced last year it would invest 850 billion yuan ($124 billion) in a reform of the medical care system within three years. And 25 percent is for medical infrastructure construction, including building hospitals and installing medical equipment.

"China is going to build out its healthcare infrastructure over the next 10 years. There are tremendous challenges and we want to position our business to be able to help China with that huge task," said Dineen. "The reform is to bring 500 million Chinese people who are outside the medical insurance system into the system."

GE Healthcare released what it called its Healthymagination strategy earlier this year, committing $6 billion within the next six years to support healthcare initiatives around the world: $3 billion in research and development, $2 billion for financing information technology and healthcare access in rural areas, and $1 billion for healthcare partnerships and other services.

The company says it is committed to developing solutions that lower the cost of healthcare and are more affordability, expanding access to more people and also increasing the quality of healthcare.

GE Healthcare now occupies more than 40 percent of China's healthcare equipment market. It realizes the rural market is still virgin land to it and a key area for development at the next step.

GE Healthcare is not only eyeing selling equipment but also providing integrated solutions and IT systems there.

It has developed small-sized, movable and easily-operated diagnosis and treatment gadgets, enabling people to use them in small clinics and remote mountainous areas at relatively low cost.

If a rural patient needs medical care services, data acquired by the equipment locally can be transmitted wirelessly to big hospitals in key cities, where specialized doctors will conduct long-distance diagnosis and treatment.

Meanwhile, all data and the medical history of the patients will be recorded, saving the cost of repeat medical examinations and enhanced diagnostic accuracy.

GE Healthcare aims to cross billion barrier

Marcelo Mosci, president and CEO of GE Healthcare China.

According to Mosci, the difference between GE Healthcare and its counterparts, especially its domestic peers, is that his company oversees the entire system, involving doctors, education, machines, data transmitting and electronic medical records.

"Our Healthymagination strategy is looking at solutions, not pieces. We want to provide help across the entire package, because technology or equipment alone does not fix problems," he said.

Medical market research house IMS Health said that thesize of the global medical devices market reached $206.59 billion last year, up 6 percent from 2007. Sales of medical appliances in China amounted to 69.44 billion yuan in 2008, occupying 5 percent of the international market. But insiders predict two-digit growth year-on-year over the coming five years.

China's medical equipment market to date is dominated by a group of international giants, such as GE Healthcare, Siemens, Toshiba, Hitachi, HP and Philips.

Research conducted by domestic firm Search In China showed that in the medical imaging equipment market, GE Healthcare, Siemens and Philips respectively made up 34.8 percent, 20.2 percent and 15.1 percent of China's 1.29-billion-yuan computed tomography sector last year.

Cooperation strength

Both Dineen and Mosci stressed that cooperation with government and partners was most crucial for GE Healthcare's development in China.

Mosci took breast cancer diagnostic workflow as an example.

China currently starts diagnosis with ultrasound. But Mosci indicated that by time experts can detect the cancer by ultrasound, it's a little bit late, because it's visual. When they use tomography, the computer picks the calcification human eyes cannot see, so it's very early in the cancer's development.

Early diagnosis translates into a 90 percent survival rate. With a late diagnosis, the fatality rate can reach 90 percent. The early-versus-late price tags are dramatically different, too. If discovered early, breast cancer treatment can cost 10,000 to 20,000 yuan. If discovered late, treatment can cost 100,000 to 200,000 yuan.

"So, we should provide suggestions for the government and combine together with the medical community to help the government improve the workflow, to increase medical efficiency and reduce medical cost," said Mosci, a Brazilian who took up his job in March.

Before then, he was president and CEO of GE Latin America, responsible not only for healthcare but also aviation, railways and energy. He said that the medical care problems are the same in China and Latin America. The difference is how the governments are tackling the problem.

"China is very aggressive in fixing this problem. They say they are going to do it. They do it tomorrow morning. Other countries say 'I am going to do it'. It takes years," he said, highlighting that cooperation with governments along with partnerships with professional organizations may help not only the implementation of China's medical reform, but also GE Healthcare's progress in the world's third largest economy.

Dineen, who has worked in China for 18 years, further explained that China was "not just an area for some additional (GE) growth, but it has become a centerpiece to our strategy around the world - it's a second home for GE".

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