GE CitizenshipIn-country, For-country Products in China
Our 2008 Commitment
- Update progress on products and services development for emerging markets in-country, for-country.
In 2008, GE Healthcare pledged to launch five new rural products for China before 2010 — one new product every six months. These rural products are designed and manufactured locally by a dedicated team of engineers located in Wuxi, China, one of GE Healthcare’s eight ultrasound R&D centers worldwide. The Healthcare Systems division intends to add additional engineers to its existing Wuxi engineering team, while leveraging the technology developed by 3,000 other GE Healthcare engineers located globally.
These additional investments in China position the company as a global innovator combining groundbreaking technologies with Chinese R&D, sourcing and manufacturing. This unique approach of global innovation and in-country localization enables GE to provide high quality diagnostic technologies to address the needs of China's rural population. GE Healthcare aims to develop more leading edge, high quality products that will be easy for rural Chinese doctors to use, as well as affordable and reliable.
Through its Healthcare Systems division, GE Healthcare already has an array of products available for use in rural China, including ultrasound systems, patient monitoring systems, electrocardiograms and anesthesia management systems. Specifically, the MAC C3 ECG Cart, Dash 1800 Patient Monitor, LOGIQ C2 and LOGIQ C3 and LOGIQ C5 ultrasound systems, and the first X-ray system for rural China: the LingLong XR 6000.
The ability of the Chinese patient to pay for healthcare is very low as per capita incomes are low, so diagnosis and correct treatment at the earliest instance has extraordinary significance. Detecting disease at a later stage leads to more expensive medical treatment, which may also be inefficient, or simply too late. In China, treatment costs for breast cancer detected at Stage I are approximately 10,000 RMB, while costs at Stage IV are approximately 100,000 RMB. Early disease detection in an emerging market like China clearly can help drive the cost of treatment down.
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