Global medical diagnostic major GE Healthcare will be increasing its product development capability and manpower strength in the country shortly.

"India is a key part of our global operations and the country is no longer viewed for its cost arbitrage but for its engineering and Information technology expertise. The country accounts for 15 per cent of the total medical diagnostics production for the global major", stated Joseph M Hogan, president and CEO, GE Healthcare UK during a press interaction arranged on the occasion of his visit to India.

Its latest manufacturing effort is the MAC 400, a handheld ECG recorder which is expected to revolutionize portable diagnostics in India. MAC 400 is easy to operate. It is light weight and has the proven clinical accuracy for 12 Lead ECG analysis besides a generation of a single sequence report The device is efficient and can be conveniently taken to the patient's bed side for the first line of diagnosis by a medical practitioner who would be able to administer necessary action during a cardiac emergency.

The company is working to ensure that Mac 400 reaches the 500,000 general physicians apart from the additional 15, 000 doctors getting into practice in the country every year. Another two product releases focused on early health model of care are expected to be out by the end of the year, stated V Raja, president, Wipro GE Medical Systems and president and CEO, GE Healthcare Technologies, South Asia.

The facility in Bangalore at Whitefield accounts for a third of the total engineering strength. The company is also looking to increase its head count from the current 2,200 personnel. While it added 500 people in 2006, the same numbers could be maintained this year depending on the growth of manufacture.

GE Healthcare with its acquisition of Abbott's primary in vitro diagnostics and Abbott Point-of-Care business will begin to offer invitro and invivo diagnostics capabilities in India. In the Life Sciences space, GE will introduce a range of protein separators chromatography systems to address the needs for the biotech sector.

The company's radio pharmacy centre in New Delhi has received the clearances from BARC. In the area of imaging agents, a global trial is on at Manipal Hospital for assessing the safety and efficacy.

GE Healthcare South Asia generated revenues to the tune of US$475 million in 2006 with a growth rate of 20 per cent. The company's expertise includes nuclear medicine, digital diagnostics, ultrasound and IT medical software business. The diagnostic market in the country is valued at $400 million and growing at 15 per cent.