GE Healthcare Launches Senographe Crystal Nova Targeting Early Breast Health in China’s Primary Care Market

More than 50 years ago, GE invented the world’s first dedicated mammography X-ray system. Today, GE continues to iterate and enhance its product portfolio.

GE Healthcare Officially Launches Senographe Crystal Nova Digital Mammography System Designed for Screening and Diagnosis of Dense Breast TissueSeptember 20, Yiyou Health – Today, GE Healthcare officially launched the Senographe Crystal Nova, a digital mammography diagnostic system specifically designed for the screening and diagnosis of dense breast tissue. This launch is also part of GE Healthcare China’s 2019 “Golden Care, Pink Action” series of activities for breast cancer prevention and treatment.

“In recent years, the incidence and mortality rates of breast cancer in China have shown a year-on-year increase, with the age of onset becoming progressively younger. Compared to the 80% early detection rate for breast cancer in European and American countries, China’s early detection rate remains below 20%, due to factors such as the high prevalence of dense breast tissue among Chinese women, the lack of standardized screening pathways, and low public awareness,” stated Dr. Ma Fei, Chief Physician in the Department of Medical Oncology at the Cancer Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.

GE Healthcare’s “Pink Campaign” has been running since 2006, marking its 14th year this year. This year, GE Healthcare willFocusing primarily on two key areas: full-pathway technological innovation and public early health education.In addition to offering a full lifecycle portfolio of products spanning screening, precision diagnosis and treatment, and follow-up care, we will collaborate with industry organizations, experts, and other stakeholders across society to jointly promote public education on high-quality breast cancer screening and prevention and control.The launch of Nova represents GE Healthcare’s technological innovation in mammography systems.

Nova: Three Major Innovations, Bullish on the Chinese Market

According to GE, Nova’s innovation is manifested in three aspects.Its Primary InnovationIt features the original cesium iodide flat-panel detector inherited from GE’s high-end mammography systems, ensuring stability, reliability, and a high detection rate.The Second Major Innovation,It is a screening and diagnostic tool specifically designed for dense breast tissue. In cases of denser breasts, there are more limitations, making abnormalities harder to detect. As most Chinese women have dense breast tissue, its unique advantage lies in its ability to detect long-standing diseases in dense breast tissue.The third innovation lies inThis mammography system inherits the advantages of GE’s imaging processing platform and is designed specifically for the characteristics of dense breast tissue and diagnostic workflows. It offers lower radiation dose and faster scanning speed, significantly improving patient throughput in outpatient settings. While experienced radiologists at many hospitals can typically perform mammography on no more than 100 patients during an eight-hour workday, the Nova system enables them to scan up to 140 patients.

Currently, Nova’s primary target customers include maternal and child health hospitals, secondary hospitals, health examination centers, and high-end health examination centers within private hospitals, among others.It primarily addresses the challenges of early screening and early diagnosis of breast diseases. This is a mammography system designed for global distribution, with a current production capacity of 500 units per year, which is expected to gradually expand in the future.

It is worth noting that part of the R&D team for Nova product’s image post-processing is based in Beijing, and the entire production line is located at the factory in Beijing.GE stated that this decision was driven by its localization strategy, its positive outlook on the Chinese market, and the high level of intelligent manufacturing at its Beijing facility.

On the one hand, the potential and demand in the Chinese market are enormous.According to the “Two-Cancer” screening program, the National Health Commission required that by 2022, coverage should reach 80% of all counties. Based on this target, the potential of China’s screening market is substantial, and the incidence rate in China is growing faster than in other countries globally. Therefore, GE has located its production line in China to enable rapid manufacturing and responsive service closer to market demand; more than 30% of the total shipment volume of this product line is supplied to the Chinese market.On the other hand, the Beijing facility’s level of intelligent manufacturing is leading among all GE Healthcare factories worldwide., quality control also adheres to a unified global standard. Therefore, the advantages of manufacturing this product in China are evident, and the Development Zone government has provided substantial support to GE.

In addition to Nova, the Pink Campaign launched a comprehensive portfolio of new breast care products, including the Invenia ABUS 2.0 Automated Breast Ultrasound Diagnostic System, the Huacai Versana Ultrasound, and the SIGNA™ Works – GE 1.5T/3.0T Magnetic Resonance Breast Imaging Solution.Tailored to the characteristics of dense breasts in Chinese women, we provide comprehensive product technologies covering the entire disease cycle, including screening, diagnosis and treatment, and follow-up for breast diseases., delivering more precise, high-quality solutions for breast cancer screening and early diagnosis and treatment to clinical practice, enhancing the quality and efficiency of screening and diagnosis, facilitating earlier detection of breast cancer, and reducing missed and misdiagnoses.

Conduct screening at the primary care level and standardize diagnosis and treatment at top-tier hospitals.

In recent years, with the gradual popularization of the “early diagnosis and early treatment” concept and continuous advancements in medical technology, the survival period of breast cancer patients has been significantly prolonged. How to guide the entire process of early screening, early diagnosis, and early treatment of breast cancer with individualized precision screening and treatment strategies, thereby furtherImproving early clinical detection rates, prognostic outcomes, and quality of life has become a new demand for current breast cancer patients and a new direction in clinical diagnosis and treatment.

However, given China’s vast territory, there are significant regional and urban-rural disparities in healthcare resources, health economic levels, and medical standards.In the case of breast cancer, there remains a 20-percentage-point difference in the five-year survival rate between urban and rural areas. Therefore, improving the homogenization of medical care is currently a significant challenge in China.

According to the "Chinese Guidelines for Breast Cancer Screening and Early Diagnosis and Treatment" released by the National Cancer Center last year, high-risk individuals aged 40 and above with a personal medical history or family genetic history need to undergo annual mammography. However,Unlike the simplicity of ultrasound procedures, mammography imposes certain requirements on radiologists’ skills in patient positioning and parameter setting, which has become a major constraint on the widespread adoption of mammography for large-scale screening.

GE Healthcare remains optimistic about China’s primary healthcare sector, adopting customized solutions tailored to primary care settings., providing primary care institutions with comprehensive service teams, including sales, product, and marketing personnel. In addition, training will be provided for physicians and hospital directors at primary care hospitals, and exchanges between tertiary hospitals and primary care hospitals will be strengthened, thereby helping to improve the level of medical care and professional competence of physicians at the primary care level.Thus, when products such as Nova are deployed at the primary care level, primary healthcare institutions can effectively utilize them, thereby enhancing the standardization of medical care.

In addition to the need to improve the standardization of medical care, the division of labor between primary healthcare institutions and tertiary hospitals is also an issue. In this regard, Ma Fei stated, “In fact, it is common in China for primary hospitals to be nearly empty while tertiary hospitals are plagued by scalpers. However, the roles of hospitals at different levels should ideally be distinct.”Tertiary hospitals are responsible for the treatment of complex and difficult cases and for providing standardized diagnosis and therapy, while basic medical services, including screening, should primarily be delivered at the primary care level. If tertiary hospitals were to conduct screening, their limited service capacity would lead to a waste of medical resources. Primary care institutions, akin to “capillaries” distributed throughout various regions, enhance healthcare accessibility; thus, they hold significant advantages in conducting screening programs."Therefore, I believe that achieving homogenization and division of labor in healthcare can effectively utilize the entire medical resources and promote a virtuous cycle in the development of the healthcare system."

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