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GE Healthcare's new transportable power source showcased at Arab Health strengthens neonatal care

Reducing transfers, unnecessary handling, and exposure to cold temperatures can minimize stress for premature and sick babies

Dubai, UAE; January 27, 2011: GE Healthcare, the healthcare business of General Electric Company (GE) , has unveiled the Giraffe® Shuttle transportable power source for its Giraffe and Panda® families of incubators and warmers for newborn babies at Arab Health 2011, the world's second largest healthcare exhibition currently ongoing at the Dubai International Convention Center through January 27.

The Giraffe® Shuttle transportable power source can help critical healing environments to function as mobile Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs). The devices work together to allow sick babies to focus their energy on healing and growing instead of having to manage the stress of exposure to cold temperatures and excessive handling. The product has been successfully introduced in Europe and the US.

"Globally 60 percent of babies admitted to the NICU have low body temperature," said Carrie EglintonManner, General Manager of Maternal Infant Care for GE Healthcare. "And for premature babies less than 30 weeks at birth, every one-degree Celsius drop in body temperature increases the likelihood of mortality by 10 percent and late on-set sepsis by 11 percent. It's clearly crucial to do everything possible to prevent heat loss.

"A significant challenge for caregivers today is that premature and sick babies are moved from bed to bed many times before they reach the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit," EglintonManner said. "In their first minutes of life, sick babies are transferred from Labor & Delivery warmers to transport incubators for the trip to the NICU. Then they're moved into the warmers or incubators that will serve as their homes in the hospital. And for some, this may be just the beginning, as they may be transported to surgery or radiology for various procedures, undergoing additional transfers there and then enduring the reverse process to make the trip back to the NICU."

She said: "The stress of all this handling, combined with exposure to fluctuating temperatures, could be very harmful to these infants, threatening their physiological and thermal stability. But the Giraffe Shuttle offers an easy solution. It transforms a Giraffe or Panda bed, providing prolonged functionality and eliminating transfers of babies to and from transport incubators as well as exposure to cold temperatures. And that reduces the likelihood of clinical problems arising from excessive handling and interrupted thermal regulation."

With the Giraffe Shuttle, the hospital clinical staff can place fragile newborn babies directly into the optimized environment of the Giraffe or Panda beds for transport to and from the NICU. Proper thermal regulation can therefore be maintained every step of the way. "It's truly a 'one baby, one bed' solution," EglintonManner said.

Recharging in just two hours, the Giraffe Shuttle provides up to 45 minutes of electrical power to these beds. It can accommodate accessories and auxiliary equipment such as life support monitors, ventilators and infusion pumps that may be needed during intra-hospital transport. "The Giraffe Shuttle is the latest in a innovative series of GE advances designed to help premature and sick babies along the road to recovery," EglintonManner said.

Over the last decade the company has provided advanced technology and exceptional thermal performance in the Giraffe OmniBed. This full-featured incubator and radiant warmer in one provides a nurturing, life-sustaining environment that fosters growth, encourages healthy development, simplifies and standardizes care, and helps promote positive outcomes for sick infants - all while addressing the needs of caregivers and families. It offers advances such as a Boost Air Curtain to protect infants from heat loss when a bed door is opened. Its patented pressure-diffusing mattress rotates 360 degrees in order to minimize nuisance touch. It also helps reduce pressure exerted against baby's skin to prevent bedsores.

As a direct result of such improvements, infants at gestational ages as young as 22 weeks and weighing as little as 350 grams (or just over 12 ounces) at birth, have survived and flourished in recent years. "We believe that the Giraffe OmniBed has already impacted more than one million fragile lives," EglintonManner said. "Now, with the availability of the Giraffe Shuttle, clinicians will be able to further improve the management of those millions more to come."

GE Healthcare, a Platinum Sponsor of Arab Health 2011, is showcasing its innovative technologies, services and solutions at its pavilion, in Hall No 4, G30 of Dubai International Convention Center.

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About GE Healthcare:
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance solutions services help our customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In addition, we partner with healthcare leaders, striving to leverage the global policy change necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable healthcare systems.

Our "healthymagination" vision for the future invites the world to join us on our journey as we continuously develop innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality around the world. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE ). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employees are 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. For our latest news, please visit http://newsroom.gehealthcare.com/http://newsroom.gehealthcare.com.

For more information, contact:
Kelly Home / Nivine William
ASDA'A Burson-Marsteller
+9714 334 4550
k.home@asdaa.com / n.william@asdaa.com

© Press Release 2011