GE Healthcare Showcases Record 17 New Products at the 7th China International Import Expo

Shanghai, November 5, 2024 – At the 7th China International Import Expo (CIIE), GE Healthcare, a seven-year consecutive participant, showcased 17 latest innovative achievements, including 7 global debuts and 10 China premieres of cutting-edge products. Focusing on precision medicine for critical diseases, primary healthcare, digital-physical integration, and integrated diagnosis and treatment, GE Healthcare deeply incorporated digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), deep learning, and automated workflows. This exhibition highlighted the convergence of global high-end technologies and resources with Chinese ingenuity, enabling Chinese patients and healthcare providers to benefit simultaneously from these innovative medical technologies and promoting the practical application of new quality productive forces in healthcare.

Peter Arduini, Global President and CEO of GE HealthCare, stated, “As the global CEO, I am thrilled to participate in the China International Import Expo (CIIE) for the first time. The CIIE serves as a vital platform for showcasing GE HealthCare’s latest innovations in precision medicine and disease diagnosis and treatment pathways worldwide. China is a key market for GE HealthCare, and we will continue to support and invest in the Chinese market, empowering local innovation and manufacturing. This will enable medical technologies, innovated to address specific needs and challenges, to benefit Chinese patients and healthcare providers more rapidly.”

The deep integration of digital technologies, such as AI and large language models, with medical technology inherently represents the development and application of new-quality productive forces. At this year’s China International Import Expo (CIIE), GE HealthCare’s “Boundless Innovation” achievements focused more on the integration of hardware and software in the digital-physical realm. This includes not only precision medical heavyweights that cover the full digitalization of the imaging chain—from front-end image acquisition to reconstruction systems and AI productivity tools—such as the PET/CT MAX Apollo, an integrated solution for the diagnosis and treatment of critical diseases; the SIGNA MAGNUS, a high-end research-grade MRI system for “micro-brain imaging” making its Chinese debut; the SIGNA Pilot 3.0T MRI; and the Versana Premier whole-body ultrasound system, which integrates more AI applications and automated workflows. It also encompasses digital healthcare innovations like “Ji Yi Da,” GE HealthCare’s general-purpose large language model product, unveiled globally for the first time.

In the realm of precise diagnosis and treatment of critical illnesses, SIGNA MAGNUS, GE Healthcare’s first MRI system specifically designed for brain and nervous system examinations featuring “Micro-Brain Imaging,” delivers gradient performance four times that of conventional whole-body MRI systems. Akin to “viewing the brain under a microscope,” it advances brain imaging to the micron level, offering superior detection capabilities for fine cerebral microstructures and lesions. This significantly enhances clinical diagnosis and neuroscience research for conditions such as concussion, brain tumors, depression, and Alzheimer’s disease, while leading the trend toward specialized and segmented innovation in MRI technology. Additionally, GE Healthcare showcased the SIGNA Pilot 3.0T “Second-Level Imaging” MRI, equipped with GE Healthcare’s current deep learning reconstruction technology, AIR Recon DL. At 3T field strength, it achieves signal-to-noise ratio efficiency comparable to 6T, completing high-definition scanning of one slice in just one second. This reduces the time required for dynamic contrast-enhanced abdominal scans from the traditional 20 minutes to 8 minutes, accelerating workflow by 2.5 times and enabling high-quality imaging of 100 anatomical regions per day. Together, SIGNA Pilot and SIGNA MAGNUS comprehensively enhance hospitals’ capabilities in the precise diagnosis and treatment of critical diseases.

In the realm of primary healthcare, the Versana Premier ultrasound system, making its debut in China, is a flagship domestic innovation jointly developed by Chinese and global teams and manufactured in Wuxi. By integrating an automated workflow with AI-powered productivity tools, the new Vision Boost 2.0 imaging platform, and high-quality transducers, the system offers ease of use, learning, and diagnosis. It helps physicians streamline workflows and enhance efficiency, delivering faster imaging speeds and superior image quality for clinical diagnosis and treatment.

In the realm of digital-physical integration, GE Healthcare showcased "Ji Yi Da," the world’s first large language model tailored for healthcare. When users encounter issues with equipment usage, they can query the model via voice, text, images, and other modalities. The model rapidly provides precise and comprehensive responses in the form of text, audio, images, or video. Often described as the “ChatGPT of the medical device industry,” it helps clinical staff quickly get up to speed and promotes the efficient operation of medical equipment.

Leveraging nuclear medicine imaging technologies to obtain richer information at the molecular imaging level is a crucial component of the precise diagnosis and treatment pathway for critical illnesses. Targeting nuclear medicine as an emerging industry of the future, GE Healthcare premiered its first digital PET/CT system empowered by AI and deep learning across the entire imaging chain—the Max Apollo—in China. By integrating Precision DL into its new digital PET detectors and data acquisition front-end, along with comprehensively enhanced hardware and software performance, the Max Apollo significantly improves data acquisition quality, reduces noise interference, and enhances quantitative accuracy. It achieves a breakthrough in unit sensitivity, a core metric, thereby promoting the clinical application of more innovative radiotracers. This brings new perspectives to the precise diagnosis and treatment of critical conditions such as neurological disorders, cardiovascular diseases, and tumors, supporting the development of nuclear medicine disciplines and clinical applications in China. Meanwhile, with the Max Apollo as the core device and in combination with collaborations in the field of novel therapeutics, GE Healthcare also unveiled its integrated ecological solution for the precise diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease for the first time globally. This solution can detect potential Alzheimer’s pathology 10–15 years in advance, offering hope to patients by enabling early intervention with etiology-targeted therapies for early-stage lesions.

To better explore integrated theranostic clinical solutions in nuclear medicine, GE HealthCare has launched a series of strategic collaborations with industry partners. For instance, in partnership with Novartis China, it focuses on the innovative development of radioligand imaging and radioligand therapy, establishing and promoting theranostic centers that meet “gold standard” criteria to advance precision diagnosis, treatment, and research innovation for serious conditions such as prostate cancer. Additionally, GE HealthCare signed a strategic cooperation memorandum with Eisai China to jointly explore early diagnostic and therapeutic efficacy assessment solutions for Alzheimer’s disease, thereby promoting early screening, early diagnosis, and precision management of neurodegenerative disorders.

Zhang Yihao, President and Chief Executive Officer of GE HealthCare China, stated, “From being a ‘first-time participant’ at the inaugural China International Import Expo (CIIE) to becoming a ‘regular returnee’ each year, GE HealthCare has evolved from an exhibitor into an investor, as well as a manufacturer, innovator, and ecosystem builder. Our unbroken seven-year presence at the CIIE underscores our long-term confidence in and steadfast commitment to the Chinese market. On this fertile ground for innovation in China, GE HealthCare introduces cutting-edge global technologies and integrates global resources with Chinese expertise, bringing more boundary-less innovations focused on precision medicine and the integration of digital and physical realities to the CIIE stage. Together with partners across and beyond the industry, we actively contribute to building an ecosystem centered on early diagnosis and integrated care for critical diseases, strengthening primary healthcare capabilities, and intelligent manufacturing of high-end medical equipment. Leveraging the spillover effects of the CIIE, we serve China’s vast market and share in its tremendous opportunities.”

Since the inaugural China International Import Expo (CIIE) in 2018, GE HealthCare has successfully launched 43 medical technologies making their global or China debuts at the event. Leveraging the spillover effects of the CIIE, these exhibits have undergone a remarkable transformation into commercial products. A case in point is the Apex Quantum Platform, which attracted significant industry attention following its release at the 2023 CIIE. The Apex Expert CT, built on this platform, rolled off the production line in Beijing by the end of that year and was subsequently installed across China. As one of the first institutions to adopt the system, Xiong’an Xuanwu Hospital has achieved a substantial increase in the success rate of coronary CTA scans. The hospital is also actively exploring advanced and complex combined scanning techniques, such as integrated brain-heart assessment, thereby delivering significant value for the precise diagnosis and treatment of common and prevalent diseases.

GE Healthcare continues to bring its CIIE narrative of evolving from an exhibitor to an investor to life through concrete actions, with a steady stream of investments since last year’s CIIE. At the end of last year, the second joint-venture plant with Sinopharm broke ground in Shenzhen, with products expected to hit the market soon. This May, GE Healthcare injected an additional RMB 380 million into its Shanghai base for production line expansion, green upgrades, and digital transformation. In August, marking the 10th anniversary of its Tianjin base, the company announced a RMB 500 million investment over the next five years to transform the facility into the Eastern Hemisphere headquarters for MRI, integrating innovation, manufacturing, and services. Just before the opening of this year’s CIIE, GE Healthcare’s Ultrasound Greater China Headquarters and the High-End Medical Device Ecosystem Project were established in Wuxi, aiming to build an ultrasound-focused ecosystem for high-end medical devices, along with an innovation center, service center, and customer experience center.

GE HealthCare is committed to becoming a global leader in innovating medical technology, diagnostic pharmaceuticals, and digital solutions. By providing integrated solutions, services, and data analytics, GE HealthCare enables hospitals to operate more efficiently, clinical diagnoses to be more effective, treatments to be more precise, and patients to be healthier and happier. With over 125 years of experience serving patients and healthcare institutions, GE HealthCare continues to advance personalized, interconnected, and more empathetic healthcare while simplifying patient diagnosis and treatment processes. GE HealthCare’s businesses in medical imaging, ultrasound, patient care solutions, and diagnostic pharmaceuticals cover all aspects of healthcare from diagnosis and treatment to monitoring. GE HealthCare was listed on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange in the United States in January 2023. The company operates in more than 160 countries and regions, with annual revenues exceeding $19.6 billion and 51,000 employees worldwide working together to create boundless healthcare.