GE Healthcare, one of the world’s leading medical imaging, healthcare services and information technology companies, showcased a wider range of enterprise-wide solutions at the Saudi e-Health Conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from March 17 to 19 at the King Faisal Hall, Intercontinental Hotel.

GE Healthcare, the official sponsor of the event, slso displayed the advanced Centricity Enterprise solutions and one of the most advanced systems for clinical documentation, the Clinical Information Systems (CIS), which is specifically tailored to meet the needs in the operating room, cardiac care unit and intensive care unit.

Also on display were the latest advances in Centricity’s Radiology Information Systems (RIS) and Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) as well as the Centricity Cardiology clinical tools and solutions.

GE Healthcare’s continued investments in the region have already started to shape healthcare IT solutions in the Middle East, directly contributing to the development of healthcare informatics, individual personal health and genomic research in the region.

GE Healthcare’s IT solutions have a proven track record in the Middle East for competency with the company executing complex projects in a quick turn-around time. “Most of our installations go live within a six-month timeframe or less, and run smoothly without problems after the go-live date.

“Its truly differentiates us from our competitors,”said Abdul Rahman Qasim, Sales Manager for GE Healthcare’ Integrated IT Solutions (IITS) business, Middle East region. “GE’s state-of-the-art IT solutions significantly contribute to making our ‘Early Health’ vision a reality – meaning enabling healthcare professionals with the tools they need in order to predict, diagnose and treat diseases earlier – which ultimately benefits the patients.”

GE Healthcare’s goal is to help clinicians detect diseases earlier and treat their patients more effectively, based on better-informed decisions. With the latest implementation of PACS/RIS solutions, experts from radiology, cardiology, nuclear medicine, CT, MR or even from Non-DICOM images producing practise areas like dermatology, pathology or ophthalmology, are able to extract clinically relevant information from complex data sets.

“We are seeing a growing business in the areas of enterprise and imaging solutions and are building a strong local team to better support, implement and service our customers. By setting up a Centricity Enterprise regional headquarters in Dubai, we strongly underline our commitment, engagement and continued investment to our Middle East customers,” explained Qasim.

Many countries in the Middle East region are planning to introduce nation-wide e-Health initiatives as part of their governmental health services. In support of training initiatives, GE Healthcare held a pre-Conference Workshop 2008, the evening prior to the Saudi e-Health conference. Every country has a different approach and objectives, how e-Health projects can be realized regarding the very diverse cultural, social, political and economic structures as well as different stakeholders, drivers and decision makers throughout healthcare organizations. This Workshop offered the opportunity for active discussions around e-Health while working in teams on interesting case studies.

As the largest healthcare technology event in the Middle East, this year’s Saudi e-Health Conference, themed ‘Towards National e-Health’, was attended by more than 500 specialists from the region. The conference has expanded the breadth of presenters, learning sessions and case studies led by international experts and specialists from the previous event, and also featured an exhibition, showcasing the latest advances in e-Health technologies, infrastructures and applications.