GE Medical Systems Named Multi-Vendor Service Provider of the Year; Frost & Sullivan Recognizes Commitment to Industry Excellence.

Business Editors/Health & Medical Writers

WAUKESHA, Wis.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 5, 2002

Frost & Sullivan honored GE Medical Systems with the presentation of its first Multi-Vendor Service Provider of the Year Award at the 2002 Excellence in Healthcare Awards Banquet held in La Jolla, California. The Frost & Sullivan Annual Healthcare Market Engineering Award for Multi-Vendor Service Provider is presented each year to the company that has demonstrated excellence in the servicing of diagnostic imaging and biomedical equipment. The recipient company is selected for its demonstrated ability to service its own imaging equipment as well as the equipment of other vendors in minimum time and with superior results.

The award recognizes GE's multi-vendor diagnostic service team for excellent customer care, wide range of services and solid market position. Through a variety of service contracts tailored specifically to an individual customer's needs, GE assists customers in maintaining a high degree of up-time for their equipment to maximize productivity and improve patient care.

"This award recognizes our goal to provide customers - no matter what systems they have - with service technologies that reduce costs, and drive productivity and revenue while improving service quality," said Michael Swinford, general manager of Multi-Vendor Service for GE Medical Systems Healthcare Services. "Our full range of multi-vendor services, which we've named GE mV(TM), are designed to assist customers with the life-cycle management of all their diagnostic and biomedical equipment. Coupled with the largest multi-vendor skilled field service organization in the industry and state-of-the-art service technologies, GE's offering is unmatched by any other service provider in the industry."

This year GE Medical Systems has invested over $5 million in multi-vendor diagnostic imaging technology to further advance its remote diagnostic capabilities for multi-vendor nuclear medicine, MR and CT equipment. The technology is backed by a national support team that can, in most cases, access systems remotely from anywhere in the world to diagnose and fix equipment in minutes without ever dispatching a field engineer to the site.

Some of these proprietary technologies that enable GE to deliver superior multi-vendor service include:

-- Remote Connectivity via Broadband - Remote Connectivity via customer broadband improves proactive system monitoring, error-log retrieval, reset capability, software fixes and image retrieval. Broadband provides VPN security for non-GE systems, more reliable connections, and faster processing of diagnostic and repair data.

-- IQVue (Image Quality Vascular Uniformity Evaluation) for cardio-vascular imaging systems -- This innovative tool is utilized by vascular field engineers to quantitatively evaluate the image quality of any vascular system regardless of manufacturer or system. IQVue benchmarks system-specific image quality data against optimal performance values and provides an indicator for customers as to the steps required to regain optimal image quality.

-- ePST (Electronic Performance Support Tool) multi-vendor documentation support -- GE created cutting-edge ePSTs that contain relevant service data on multi-vendor systems, including logic diagrams, troubleshooting charts, functional checks, alignment and calibration, error codes and component location diagrams, all of which provide reengineered electronic service information to support OEM service documentation. With ePSTs, understanding non-GE systems is simplified so field engineers can diagnose and deliver fast service solutions for any multi-vendor system.

"Because of its first-class services, technology and people, GE Medical Systems is the largest player in the medical imaging equipment services industry as measured by market share," the Frost & Sullivan announcement concluded. GE has approximately 2,500 service engineers and 1,400 biomedical engineering technicians and exclusive contracts for servicing over 10,000 diagnostic imaging systems and over 1,400,000 biomedical devices at hospitals throughout North America.

About GE Medical Systems Healthcare Services

GE Medical Systems Healthcare Services offers a broad portfolio of business and clinical solutions for healthcare providers. These products include asset, performance improvement, education and financial services designed to help healthcare providers improve quality, enhance performance, increase productivity and reduce costs. GE Medical Systems Healthcare Services is a business of GE Medical Systems, a $9 billion global leader in medical imaging and technology. Additional information about GE Medical Systems can be found at www.gemedical.com.

About Frost & Sullivan

Founded in 1961, Frost & Sullivan is recognized as a global leader in strategic market training and growth consulting. Frost & Sullivan presents Market Engineering Awards to companies that demonstrate excellence in their industry, commending the diligence, commitment, and innovative business strategies required to advance in the global marketplace. Frost & Sullivan rigorously analyzes specific criteria to determine Market Engineering Award recipients in a vast variety of market industries and landscapes. For further information, visit www.frost.com.