OREANDA-NEWS. November 13, 2012. GE Healthcare today announced the first US pediatric facility installation of its DoseWatch* technology, a new radiation dose-tracking and reporting solution that can help analyze patient exposure levels over time and impact quality of care, at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

DoseWatch helps healthcare systems assess and improve their dose management through tracking and archiving dosimetric data and generating integrated statistical analysis by device, operator or protocol. DoseWatch supplements existing dose awareness technologies — capturing standardized dose information on Computed Tomography (CT), Interventional and X-ray systems from a range of equipment vendors. Currently, there are approximately 100 installations of DoseWatch around the globe.

Recently named one of the nation's top five “Best” children's hospitals by U.S. News & World Report, and an early adopter of GE Healthcare’s flagship Discovery CT750 HD low dose CT imaging system, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles continues to set the tone for kid-friendly care. As a longtime advocate of the Image Gently Campaign - an initiative by the Alliance for Radiation Safety in Pediatric Imaging to improve dose awareness and promote radiation protection in pediatric imaging – Children’s Hospital Los Angeles represents a leader in the field and a perfect collaborating partner for GE Healthcare.

“GE Healthcare has long been committed to working with health care providers, including the nation’s leading hospitals, to help them monitor and reduce patient exposure to radiation dose in medical imaging,” said Agnes Berzsenyi, general manager for Education and Dose, GE Healthcare. “Pediatric imaging presents an important opportunity for raised awareness and patient care, and we look forward to collaborating with clinical leaders at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles as they care for some of the most vulnerable patients.”

The growing clinical adoption of DoseWatch in the US and beyond builds upon GE’s announcement last year of more than USD 800 million of investment in low-dose technologies over 15 years, and this year’s unveiling of the GE Blueprint for low dose – an unprecedented commitment to help leading US hospitals further reduce average patient exposure to radiation dose in imaging procedures by up to 50 percent via the best technology, protocols and training available.

* Trademark of General Electric Company.

 GE Blueprint’s goal is to work with healthcare providers to reduce their average patient exposure by up to 50 percent, based on longitudinal tracking of average dose. The dose reduction goal is the result of a comprehensive program covering a full array of dose reduction principles. It is not solely based on equipment features. Individual site achievement will vary and any percentage reduction is dependent on the initial baseline for that site. In all cases diagnostic image quality must be maintained.