GE Healthcare Launches Discovery PET/CT 600 at the European Association of Nuclear Medicine 2008.

Delivers powerful combination of the highest sensitivity in the industry, next generation of MotionFree technology, high definition imaging, fast reconstruction with the IBM BladeCenter[R]

MUNICH, Germany -- Continuing its leadership in PET/CT technology, GE Healthcare announced the introduction of Discovery PET/CT 600, GE Healthcare's newest positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) system at the annual meeting of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) Congress in Munich.

Recently cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Discovery PET/CT 600 is part of GE's Discovery family of scanners designed to enable earlier detection and accurate monitoring of disease with molecular imaging technology in both hardware and software.

Discovery PET/CT 600 is optimized for use in oncology, which represents more than 90 percent of clinical PET/CT exams. "We are committed to providing clinicians the most relevant technology to their practices," said Henry Hummel, general manager of GE Healthcare's global PET/CT business. "This new scanner is representative of that philosophy. It represents a big step in capabilities addressing the biggest clinical challenge in PET/CT, managing and correcting for motion."

The Discovery PET/CT 600 leverages the high-speed, high-resolution capabilities of GE's BrightSpeed CT with the breakthrough motion management capabilities of its Discovery PET system. By combining these scanning technologies, the Discovery PET/CT 600 provides the tools to enable physicians to manage disease with more confidence.

As a key component of the image chain, the Discovery PET/CT 600 includes a scintillator with a proven track record and the highest sensitivity in the industry. GE BGO technology allows for improved lesion detectability, potentially reducing the dose requirement and allowing for faster scans and increased throughput.

For clinicians, the Discovery PET/CT 600 will provide a large 70cm bore that offers a full 70cm PET and CT Field-of-View and a ~225kg (500 lbs.) patient table. The GE Discovery PET/CT 600 offers an increased vertical scan range that provides more flexibility in radiation treatment planning and patient positioning.

"Discovery PET/CT 600 represents another step forward toward our goal of addressing clinician's challenges in PET/CT," said Hummel. "The Discovery PET/CT 600 platform was built for physicians and molecular imaging researchers based on their clinical need for more quantitative accuracy and the power to explore the potential of PET/CT imaging."

GE's exclusive MotionFree imaging technologies, along with VUE Point High Definition applications used to improve small lesion detection and advance image processing, are on display at this year's EANM Congress. Additional information can be found at www.gehealthcare.com.

About GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, performance improvement, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform, treat and monitor disease, so patients can live their lives to the fullest.

GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases and other conditions earlier. Our vision for the future is to enable a new "early health" model of care focused on earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection and disease prevention. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 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.