Press Releases

GE Healthcare’s Health Kiosks Enables Easy “ATM Style” Access to Electronic Medical Records

DALLAS, TX - GE Healthcare, a division of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), announced today that the company is introducing conceptual technology that applies several convenient and user-friendly concepts of the financial industry to personal healthcare management. A prototype of GE’s Health Kiosks, showcased at the 2005 Annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Conference & Exhibition February 14-17 at the Dallas Convention Center, allow patients to withdraw from and deposit information into their healthcare records at each doctor’s office or facility they visit.

Health Kiosks, developed with Galvanon, the company that manufacturers the kiosk, eClipboard and patient check in solutions, will be housed at physician offices and hospitals and will operate with Centricity® Physician Office, and which enables patients to interact with physicians’ electronic medical record systems.

Health Kiosks, already in use at two facilities, allow patients to make administrative data updates to their medical records, including address information, insurance updates, appointment scheduling, and even payments.

Just as on-line banking has revolutionized the financial industry, we believe GE’s Health Kiosks will transform the availability and accuracy of patient healthcare records, said Vishal Wanchoo, president and CEO of Information Technologies, part of GE Healthcare. GE’s Health Kiosks include computerized tools that enable physicians to manage patient data and empower patients to be more involved in the oversight of their own healthcare information.

Health Kiosks look like a financial ATM machine, with a base and monitor. There is a portal on the side for insertion of the USB stick for memory transactions and card scan for user authentication and payment entry.

Information collected from the Health Kiosks can be brought home via a USB memory stick small enough to fit on a patient’s key chain, to enable consumers to access their medical records in the privacy of their own homes. The GE Personal HealthKey contains Personal Health Record software, or PHR, created in partnership with CapMed, a division of Bio-Imaging Technologies, Inc., which allows patients to withdraw, or download, information from the Health Kiosk. For example, a patient may download a personal chart from their physician's office or a medical image and aggregate that data into their portable personal health record to securely store, manage and communicate this information from their key chain. All tools to view and update information are self-contained on the HealthKey, so all that is needed is a USB port, available on nearly every computer manufactured worldwide in the past five years.

"The PHR program is similar in design to many popular home computer programs, like Quicken 2005 Delux or Microsoft® Money, so consumers will already feel comfortable using the software," said Wanchoo.

PHR also allows patients to record medical information on their own home computers and deposit this information into the physician office's electronic medical record system. For example, if a consumer is doing physical therapy at home, everything can be recorded and tracked so when that person visits the doctor for a check up, the physician will have the most up-to-date clinical data. "We apply the same management concepts to other parts of our lives - work, finances, academics - why not to the most important one of all, our health," said Wanchoo. "Medicine is much more complex now, with specialty practices and hospital networks. A person may go to four different doctors, none of who have information about what the other is doing. This ties it all together and not only assists the doctors, but ensures the safety of the patient.

ABOUT GALVANON

Galvanon helps healthcare organizations enhance the patient experience at home, in the hospital and in the physician's office. Innovative solutions such as self-service check in kiosks (MediKiosk), eClipboard’s, online self-service applications, integrated enterprise way finding and CVM software streamline everyday patient interactions and improve patient flow through the healthcare process. For more information, visit www.galvanon.com.

ABOUT CAPMED

CapMed, a division of Bio-Imaging Technologies, Inc., (NASDAQ/NMS: BITI - News) is based in Newtown, PA. The CapMed Personal Health Record™ (PHR) and Personal HealthKey™ provide hospitals and health systems, employers and pharmaceutical organizations with custom personal health management solutions and marketing tools to increase market share, reduce costs of care, improve patient-provider communications, and empower patients to be more active in personal health management. This is accomplished through a combination of personal health management tools, personalized education, and links to relevant community resources.

About GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies that will shape a new age of patient care. GE Healthcare’s expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, disease research, drug discovery and biopharmaceuticals is dedicated to detecting disease earlier and tailoring treatment for individual patients. GE Healthcare offers a broad range of services to improve productivity in healthcare and enable healthcare providers to better diagnose, treat and manage patients with conditions such as cancer, Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular diseases.

GE Healthcare is a $14 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) that is headquartered in the United Kingdom. Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 42,500 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at:
www.gehealthcare.com