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The Middle East rises up to GE Healthcare's 'Get Fit' social media challenge

Strong participation from Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and the UAE with the public endorsing 'cancer-busting' lifestyle choices

Kenya gains most votes winning GE Healthcare's US$20,000 donation

Dubai, UAE; August 18, 2011: GE Healthcare's 'Get Fit' social media competition on Twitter, aimed at raising public awareness on cancer prevention and healthy living, recorded strong response from the Middle East region with a large number of residents in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and the UAE endorsing healthy lifestyle practices and their commitment to 'Get Fit.'

Globally, the Middle East and Africa regions led the campaign, which was held over a two-month period encouraging people to tweet about their own health and fitness activities that have been shown to reduce the likelihood of developing cancer. More than 700 participants from 55 countries took part in the campaign generating about 5,500 Get Fit tweets.

GE Healthcare had committed a US$20,000 donation to the Red Crescent or Red Cross Society of a single country in the winning region, which was determined through an online poll at the end of the contest. Kenya garnered the most votes, and the Kenya Red Cross Society will receive the donation.

Aziz Koleilat, General Manager at GE Healthcare for the Middle East region, said: "The 'Get Fit' campaign was a perfect fit to our healthymagination initiative, which focuses on strengthening access to quality healthcare at lower costs across the region. It also underlined our earlier model of healthcare, where the emphasis is on prevention and early diagnosis."

He added: "The strong response from the Middle East highlights the growing importance that the public places on good healthcare practices, which is important in meeting the dual challenge faced by the region - of growing healthcare bills led and a rising incidence of lifestyle diseases."

Sebastien Duchamp, Global PR Director at GE Healthcare, said: "With 'Get Fit', GE Healthcare has kicked off a long-term public awareness campaign that strives to educate people about cancer prevention and raise general awareness that lifestyle choices do impact one's likelihood of developing certain cancers. We're very pleased with the level of engagement this competition generated in so many countries, it clearly demonstrates the power of digital and social media to engage populations around the world combined with a great cause."

Nearly 30 percent of all cancer deaths can be prevented, according to the World Health Organization. Each year, 12.7 million people discover they have cancer and 7.6 million people die from the disease. Evidence shows that 30-40 per cent of all cancer deaths can be prevented, and one-third can be cured through early diagnosis and treatment. Research also has found that a healthy diet and regular exercise can help reduce the risk of cancer.

The Get Fit competition was a novel approach, using social media linked to an interactive map to display the progression of the competition in real time. By promoting the competition through GE Healthcare's online newsroom and the support of GE employees in countries around the world, participation and interest was truly global and a high level of activity was sustained throughout the two months.

-Ends-

Healthymagination at GE
Healthymagination-validated products have touched the lives of more than 234 million people as part of GE 's US$6 billion commitment to provide better health for more people at lower cost. By creating easy access to clear, actionable information, healthymagination is helping consumers participate more fully in their own healthcare story. The "Get Fit" competition is one such initiative, aiming to raise awareness of cancer risks that are linked to peoples' daily lifestyle choices.‪

GE also creates data visualizations using data from healthymagination initiatives and from government and NGO partners. These interactive graphics present information in a personal and compelling way that can help them make decisions and gain perspective on health issues.‪

The healthymagination suite of mobile apps from GE is custom-designed with health consumers in mind. Each application is focused on specific aspects of health -- such as diet, sleep and pregnancy -- to help people learn, and manage their personal health effectively. Find out more at http://www.healthymagination.com/.

Join the conversation at our GE Hewar blog: http://middleeast.geblogs.com/

For details on healthymagination, log on to: http://www.healthymagination.com/

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.

© Press Release 2011