GE Medical Systems South Asia has introduced Infinia Hawkeye, a revolutionary combined nuclear medicine/computed tomography (CT) system. The new system delivers exceptional image quality and provides diagnostic confidence to physicians with a proven impact on patient management. The launch was during the first Annual Conference of the Association of Nuclear Medicine Physicians.

Infinia Hawkeye's integrated nuclear medicine/CT solution harnesses the power of GE's exclusive Hawkeye Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT)/CT imaging to help physicians more precisely diagnose or locate diseases.

Infinia Hawkeye is the first nuclear medicine system ever designed with GE's stringent Six Sigma quality methodology, ensuring improved clinical reliability and serviceability.

Recent clinical studies have shown that the use of the GE Hawkeye system, first pioneered in 1999 worldwide, significantly improves patient management across a range of common pathologies, including heart disease, prostate cancer and thyroid cancer.

"The future of nuclear medicine lies at the intersection of SPECT and CT technologies," said Shanker Annaswamy, president and CEO, GE Medical Systems South Asia. "Infinia Hawkeye's unparalleled versatility, unmatched image quality, and significant productivity benefits boosts physicians' diagnostic confidence and improves patient management."

Infinia Hawkeye's SPECT images focus on metabolic abnormalities that are present earlier than the anatomical changes otherwise seen with CT alone. Infinia helps physicians eliminate guesswork and enables them to plan better patient treatment as it registers both images for a complete pathology picture in a single examination. In addition, clinicians can screen patients more quickly whether they are standing, seated, confined to a wheelchair or on a stretcher."

N R Balamurugan, business manager, Functional Imaging, GE Medical Systems South Asia added: "HawkEye is an hybrid imaging system that acquires both SPECT and CT images in a single scan, registering to a single image. Hawkeye also boosts the clarity of nuclear images by correcting for attenuation, or loss of radiation within human tissue. Hybrid imaging helps improve patient care, makes diagnosis more accurate, treatments more timely and cost-effective. In India, leading institutions like Hinduja National Hospital and Research Centre, Mumbai, Bombay Hospital, Mumbai, INMAS, New Delhi, Delhi Institute of Functional Imaging etc. are using HawkEye to provide better patient care".

Infinia combines the versatility of a single-head gamma camera with the productivity of a dual-head design, facilitating maximum patient flexibility by allowing for all scanning positions in an ultra-rapid scan cycle. With the foundation of all-digital Elite detector technology and advanced image attenuation correction, Infinia delivers ultimate SPECT reconstruction and unsurpassed image resolution.

Infinia Hawkeye is equipped with the new Xeleris workstation to accelerate the entire imaging and review process. The workstation delivers state-of-the-art processing speed, innovative productivity tools, and built-in connectivity to Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS).

Infinia Hawkeye is installed for clinical use at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel; Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City; Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital in Milwaukee, Wis.; and Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater, Fla. GE Medical Systems expects 100 Infinia units to be installed by the end of this year.

According to World Health Organisation cancer affects approximately 10 million people worldwide. In the backdrop of this information, GE executives anticipate that that Infinia technology will be in 100 locations by the end of 2003.