Technology in Medicine Dec 03

An Image in Quality: GE Medical Systems
Scans New Opportunities in CT Tube Technology

by Julie E. Williamson

With accurate, timely treatment often hinging on a healthcare provider's ability to deliver a clear diagnostic image, it's little wonder so much attention is being placed on medical imaging technology that can offer rapid scans, exceptional image quality and unsurpassed value.

As a global leader in medical imaging, healthcare services and information technology, GE Medical Systems understands those needs and has consistently strived to master—and surpass—customer requirements. For more than 100 years, the company has stood firmly behind its commitment to meet the ever-changing demand of healthcare, keep a finger on the pulse of promising new technology, and stay one step ahead of the curve to give customers the future of medical imaging modalities today.

Nowhere is that commitment to quality more visible than with the Performix CT tube platform. Utilizing GE's Six Sigma tools and methodology, the Performix tube brings a new level of performance and return on investment to computed tomography with longer tube life, faster patient exams and dramatically improved image quality.

Here Tim Nustad, GE Medical's general manager for Global Components Engineering, and marketing manager Chris Ward discuss the unique design and value of the Performix Tube, the benefits of leveraging GE's investment in technology and applying it across various segments and platforms, and the role GE Medical is playing in the future of CT beyond 16-slice.

Q: Describe GE's approach to tube development and innovation?

Nustad: For tube platform developments, for instance the Performix platform, we'll invest a good deal of time to develop new fundamental technologies, apply some new science and put it into a tube. An investment in Performix, such as building a metal frame tube or using our thermal management technology, may take two or three years before it gets to a production version of a tube. Beyond that, we make longer cycle investments as well. These might be technology platforms where we'll go after a new electron optics advantage or new bearing or material technology, for example, and invest in that technology for three to five years before it even enters a product development program.

Q: How does GE demonstrate technology leadership? What makes the design philosophy behind Performix unique?

Nustad: GE has maintained a commitment of differentiating itself with premium X-ray and CT tubes. Our investment in terms of engineering resources— both within GE Medical Systems and across GE—has been a big part of our history. There are a lot of pieces to that, of which the precision of our Six Sigma design methodology is critical. We also get a tremendous amount of support because the tubes and components organization is so tightly partnered with the imaging modalities. For us, having a lot of insight into where CT, X-ray and mammography are going helps focus our efforts on the right platforms and technologies earlier.

We have a big investment in technology through other GE resources as well, such as our Global Research Center, where we are utilizing materials and advanced thermal research. It's those kinds of skill sets, resources and horsepower in terms of fundamental physics, materials and mechanical science that many other tubes organization just don't have access to. We are finding some tremendous synergies across GE businesses.

Whether it's rotational dynamics with our Power Systems groups or manufacturing technologies that we learn from aircraft engines, we spend a lot of time talking to resources across GE to share common solutions that have been delivered and see how they can be applied to other areas.

Q: What makes a Performix tube better?

Ward: Performix was the first Six Sigma product design project we undertook, so we went through painstaking efforts to get it right. The image quality is outstanding and continues to be the reference point for the marketplace. Return on customer's investment is another big part. We regularly hear from customers who get in excess of a million slices on a Performix tube. While mileage will vary, the point is that we know that longer life and more uptime translate to not just business criteria but also to great patient care. When you think about Performix ownership on a cost-per-slice basis, it really works in the reliability of the tube and the uptime, giving people a clearer sense of their return on investment.

Also, we've shipped 11,000 Performix tubes to date with each one of those offering us an opportunity for further improvement.

Q: What's next in terms of Performix platform extension?

Nustad: The future of CT is the world beyond 16-slice. It's about moving CT from discreet slice-based imaging to a world where it's about volume CT and fast helical scanning. We're really excited to have those linkages with the systems teams and to have the ability to extend the Performix platforms to higher powers, faster rotation speeds and higher instantaneous instantaneous power to support the very fast volume scans.

Q: How is GE able to introduce new products into the market quickly?

Nustad: No matter what GE tube a given customer might need, they fundamentally receive the advantages of our high performance tubes in terms of longer life and excellent image quality. The ability to make a technology investment and solve a problem ñ and then be able to apply it to other teams and product globally—is a big part of how we move faster.

Q: When judging tube choices, why do you believe evaluations based solely upon specifications aren't so helpful?

Nustad: One of the things we've tried to do is to emphasize clinical value by understanding which applications will be most important to the customer, and then look at how our systems work together with the tubes to meet those expectations. It gives us a tremendous advantage to partner with the systems group and optimize a specification of a tube—and to talk to customers about a tube in terms of what value it can deliver in their clinical practice. We'll always have some traditional specs by which people will judge tubes, but we are making a very big effort to talk about the application space and the value that the complete imaging system brings to customers.

Because during tube development we have access to the tube, as well as the system that the tube is intended to run on, it helps us a great deal in developing new products and understanding how customers will use the tube in real clinical solutions. Once a tube is developed, data from customer usage logs and tube usage in real time are tremendous assets as we look to engineer new tubes and make existing tubes better.

Q: What role does the GE Medical Systems service team have in delivering tubes? How does that differ from an ISO's role?

Nustad: The obvious goal with Service is to be out there taking care of our customers. Our ability to go in competently and quickly to deliver value along with our product is what we pride ourselves on. The second piece of that then becomes the level of synergy that can be driven by putting the service engineering team together with the manufacturing and engineering design teams. With that, we can leverage feedback from the field by having service engineers debrief on field problems to our design engineers and help them better understand what's going on in the field—like root cause analysis of why tubes failed and incorporating that information back into other designs.

Ward: We have about 2,300 field engineers in the U.S. They are supported by 35 US warehouses, so that puts our tube supply within four hours of 90% of our customers. When you think about that many people out there, you can also imagine how close they are to the customers in terms of drive time. We know that our products and the way they are defined ultimately is determined by our customers. That gives us a very different perspective than most third-party independent service providers.

We're squarely and fully in the business of helping healthcare providers save lives. It's a very different level of investment than that of a middle-man or an ancillary services outfit. For us, we have an obligation to do whatever we can to fully and capably support our equipment and, ultimately, the delivery of high quality medical care.

For more information about GE Medical Systems and the products and services they offer, please call 1.800.558.2040.