GE Healthcare Releases Industry's First Expert Consensus on MR After-Sales Service

Original Title: GE Healthcare Releases the Industry's First Expert Consensus on MR After-Sales Service Source: Internet

- The industry’s first “Expert Consensus on MR After-Sales Service,” jointly compiled by the Imaging Technology Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, frontline clinical practitioners from more than 50 hospitals across China, and GE Healthcare, has been released. It covers over 100 indicators, including quality and safety standards and quality control methods for MR after-sales service, clinical scanning parameters, and specifications for digital remote maintenance, comprehensively enhancing clinical capabilities.

- First-time inclusion of digital remote services and applications in service standards to enhance hospital efficiency, reduce costs, improve effectiveness, and strengthen smart hospital deployment

- Starting in June, the “Consensus Nationwide Tour, 100% Care” after-sales promotion and training project for thousands of hospitals was officially launched, aiming to enhance the capabilities of primary care physicians and drive overall quality improvement in the medical equipment service industry.

Beijing, June 12, 2020 – Today, the “Expert Consensus on Original Manufacturer After-Sales Service for GE 1.5T Magnetic Resonance Imaging Systems” (hereinafter referred to as the “Consensus”), jointly compiled by the Imaging Technology Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, frontline clinical practitioners from more than 50 hospitals across China, and GE Healthcare, was officially released. As the first after-sales service standard in the industry led by end-users of medical equipment, the Consensus clarifies the scope and standards for after-sales services for GE 1.5T MR systems. It comprehensively covers over one hundred indicators, including quality and safety standards, quality control methods, clinical scanning sequence parameters, and specifications for digital remote services, ensuring that equipment performance meets original manufacturer design specifications, thereby helping to enhance hospitals’ clinical capabilities and patient experience. The “Consensus Nationwide Tour: 100% Care” after-sales service promotion and training program for thousands of hospitals was also officially launched today. Over the next year, GE Healthcare will collaborate with dozens of experts to reach grassroots levels, train more radiology technologists, and elevate the overall service standards of the medical equipment industry.

Fu Haihong, Chairman of the Imaging Technology Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, stated, “Precision in medicine begins with precision in imaging; precision in imaging relies on advanced technology, and technological precision requires clear, standardized guidelines. Due to the inherent complexity of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), coupled with high turnover among imaging technologists—particularly in primary healthcare institutions—as well as inadequate and untimely training, and the longstanding lack of unified standards for after-sales service, issues such as equipment performance stability, image artifacts, noise, and overall imaging quality have consistently plagued frontline imaging professionals. These challenges further compromise the accuracy of patient diagnoses and the timeliness of treatment. GE Healthcare is the first imaging equipment manufacturer bold enough to introduce comprehensive and detailed service standards, openly subjecting them to expert evaluation and clinical validation, and inviting users nationwide to hold the company accountable against these benchmarks. We highly commend GE Healthcare for taking this significant pioneering step.”

Zheng Jieming, Vice President of GE Healthcare China and General Manager of its Customer Services business, stated, “As a leading enterprise in the medical equipment industry, GE Healthcare has the responsibility to drive users and peers toward a ‘gold standard’ of higher-quality, safer, and smarter services, fostering the establishment of a comprehensive service system that encompasses quality spare parts supply, professional technical support, intelligent clinical management, and talent development. The Consensus will focus primarily on the experiences of healthcare professionals and patients, extending its scope across the entire equipment lifecycle to advance the implementation of precision medicine and smart hospitals from the perspective of service quality control. In the future, GE Healthcare will continue to collaborate with hospitals and associations to develop consensus-based service standards for equipment such as 3T MRI and CT systems, thereby benefiting more patients.”

Since 2019, GE Healthcare has conducted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment inspections at one hundred hospitals utilizing non-OEM after-sales services, assisting customers with equipment testing, hazard identification, and clinical application training. During this process, practical issues arising from improper maintenance were identified. Taking a secondary Class A hospital as an example, with an estimated average of 1,000 anatomical regions scanned per month, approximately 200 cases of artifacts caused by poor magnetic field homogeneity and around 100 cases of artifacts resulting from improper parameter settings occur cumulatively. These artifacts account for approximately 30% of the total scan volume. Such artifacts can obscure lesions or blur images, posing potential risks of missed or misdiagnosis. Furthermore, system downtime and reduced coil signal-to-noise ratio caused by lack of regular maintenance or improper maintenance significantly impact scanning speed and efficiency, resulting in annual losses of at least several hundred thousand RMB for a hospital of this scale.

To this end, GE Healthcare, in collaboration with the Imaging Technology Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, has developed a comprehensive and practically valuable standard system. This system references national technical specifications such as the NMPA’s “Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Quality in the Use of Medical Devices” and the “Specification for Testing of Medical Magnetic Resonance Imaging Systems,” while integrating GE’s quality standards with the practical experience of frontline clinical experts and engineers. From a clinical perspective, the Consensus clarifies parameter standards for 21 sequences across the head, abdomen, knee joint, and breast. It quantifies and standardizes more than ten imaging indicators, including magnetic field homogeneity, coil signal-to-noise ratio, cooling system performance, and eddy current calibration performance. From a quality control perspective, it sets forth explicit requirements for the qualifications and skills of maintenance personnel, the tools used for maintenance, spare parts, and response times for maintenance services.

It is worth noting that the "Consensus" establishes standards for remote digital intelligent services for the first time, specifying the scope, channels, response speed, network transmission, and confidentiality security of intelligent predictive maintenance, remote preventive maintenance, and remote diagnostic maintenance. Particularly in the post-pandemic era, smart systems have become essential infrastructure for hospitals, and more standardized intelligent equipment services will shift their efficacy "upstream," becoming a critical tool for physicians' precise diagnosis and for efficient and safe hospital management. The standardized intelligent services outlined in the "Consensus" include:

- The intelligent service system replaces manual labor to automatically monitor the equipment operating environment and magnet cooling status 24/7. In the event of a warning, alert information and solutions are automatically pushed to the doctor’s WeChat account, providing rapid guidance for equipment recovery.

- Senior engineers conduct regular remote inspections and equipment maintenance to help medical staff detect and resolve potential faults at an early stage, ensuring uninterrupted equipment operation and minimizing downtime, thereby buying valuable time for repairs and patient scans;

- A multi-channel service framework encompassing WeChat, the 400 hotline, and software-based repair requests enables physicians to rapidly connect with the service system in the event of a malfunction—either facilitating remote resolution or enabling swift diagnosis to formulate an optimal repair plan, dispatch nearby engineers, and simultaneously order spare parts, thereby effectively minimizing downtime.

Source: Internet