First Computed Tomography (CT) Scan System Designed and Manufactured in India Launched

[Chanakya's_Chant]

GE Healthcare designs, builds CT system in India​

Wipro GE Healthcare on Wednesday launched Revolution ACTs, the first computed tomography (CT) scan system designed and manufactured in India, at a glittering ceremony in the presence of John Flannery, the global CEO and president of the $18-billion GE Healthcare; Terri Bresenham, president & CEO of GE Healthcare South Asia; Prathap C Reddy, founder and chairman of the Apollo Hospitals Group; and Kaushik Mukherjee, chief secretary of Karnataka. ​

The company said Revolution ACTs is the result of Rs 120 crore in investment and collaboration with Indian healthcare providers for over four years.

Talking to reporters later, Bresenham said the new CT scan system is 40 per cent less expensive than competing offerings in the market and uses 40 per cent less power. Revolution ACTs, which is Wipro GE Healthcare’s 26th product, will cost less than Rs 1 crore for each installation, she said. She said 75 engineers worked on the design process of the system and the manufacturing plant at Bengaluru has a capacity to produce up to 1,000 systems in a year. “Customers were an important part of the design process. Twenty customers have already been identified and they are actually here attending the event. This year, we have plans to sell 100-200 systems,” she said.

GE Healthcare disclosed that it had recently formed a separate company called GenWorks Health, which would function as a new national network to address challenges faced by healthcare providers in tier II-IV towns. “GenWorks has commenced operations with 150 highly experienced team members with each member having an average industry and leadership experience of 17 years. It is rapidly building presence in 450 tier II-IV towns to take disruptive technologies, training and support closer to healthcare providers,” the company said.

CT scan systems are used to diagnose health conditions like stroke, trauma, etc. “India has one of the highest prevalence of diseases like stroke with 16 lakh new cases every year leading to 6,30,000 deaths….However, we have limited penetration of this important technology — three CT systems per million population compared with 20 CT systems per million population in developed markets,” the company said. Flannery, who was earlier the president and CEO for GE India from October 2009 to April 2013, said neighbouring China had 15,000 more CT installations than India.

GE Healthcare had last year entered into an agreement with Cancer Treatment Services International (CTSI) to set up 25 world-class cancer care centres across India at a cost of Rs 750 crore. Bresenham said the partners are now on the verge of setting up two of those hospitals. “One of them will have Revolution ACTs installed,” she said.

GE Healthcare claims to have developed a world-class supplier base in India as well as facilities for assembly and testing. “Over 30 per cent of the product components and parts are either in-house manufactured or sourced from India and includes the heart of the machine — generator and tubes.” Bresenham, however, added that a fair amount of the components are still imported, notably detector material.

Source:- GE Healthcare designs, builds CT system in India

 

[Ronin]

Good sign for make in India

 

[anant_s]

Wonderful!
Its use will bring down cost of a CT scan which is quite costly and often beyond reach for a lot of patients. Also domestic production could mean smaller towns getting the machine. A quick early scan can mean saving a life in case of internal injuries, unfortunately several small towns donot have such facilities owing to cost. I hope such projects change the picture.

 

[Skull and Bones]

Good development, biomedical product manufacturing is one avenue we can tap into.

 

[Mr.Nair]

I heard that the biggest number of GE Medical devices like MRI,CT Scan in the world are in India

 

[Chanakya's_Chant]

Interestingly GE-BE Pvt Limited was set up in 1997 as a joint venture between Bharat Electronics Limited and General Electric Medical System. The facility based at Whitefield, Bangalore, manufactures X-ray tubes for RAD & F and CT systems, as well as components such as high voltage tanks and detector modules for CT systems. The products are exported worldwide and meet the safety and regulatory standards specified by FDA, CE, MHW, AERB and the facility has been accredited with ISO-9001; ISO-13485 and ISO-14001 certifications. GE-BEL also markets the conventional X-ray tubes made at the Pune unit of BEL.

GE has contributed a lot of the Make in India initiative already!

 

[Chanakya's_Chant]

Philips launches new `Made-in-India’ medical equipment

PUNE, APRIL 8:
Philips has launched new diagnostic equipment that has been developed and designed at its two R&D Centres in India and manufactured at its Greenfield facility at Chakan near Pune.

One of the two products unveiled today are the MobileDiagnost Opta, a digital X-Ray system for use in restricted spaces like intensive care units and operations theatres.

The second, BV Vectra is a mobile C-arm system dedicated to orthopaedic surgical procedures.

The equipment is part of five products developed indigenously so far and manufactured at the Philips Healthcare Innovation Centre (HIC) at Chakan. A sixth product – a mammography unit - is under development.

For Philips, this is one of six such centres worldwide and the only one in emerging markets.

The manufacturing facility which went on stream in 2012 gives the Dutch Electronics giant easier access to the Rs. 6,000 crore market for medical equipment in India.

“The Indian subcontinent is in the top 10 of 17 market groups (covering 100 countries) globally for Philips Healthcare, and we want to be in the top 5,” Sameer Garde, President and CEO, Philips Healthcare SouthAsia, said.

With three main players in the country - GE, Siemens and Philips - currently nearly 80 per cent of all medical equipment in India is imported. "Philips is committed to bringing this down," he added.

Earlier, unveiling the new products, Rekha Ranganathan, global GM, mobile surgery and head, Philips HIC said that the Centre was well positioned to address global markets with products, solutions and services for image guided therapy. Nearly 20-25 per cent of the production from Chakan had been sent to over 90 countries, she said.

She added that Philips also plans to increase localisation – currently varying from 10-50 per cent for the various products - and was developing a supplier base for components.

Source:- Philips launches new `Made-in-India’ medical equipment | Business Line
Philips to increase export of medical equipment from India