GE Healthcare Opens $165 Million Digital Mammography Production Facility

NORTH GREENBUSH, N.Y. -- 05 June 2009 -- Senior leaders from GE Healthcare and GE Global Research are joining State and local leaders as well as officials from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) today for the grand opening of GE Healthcare’s new, state-of-the-art digital mammography production facility at the Rensselaer Technology Park.

The new 230,000 sq ft facility will add 150 high paying manufacturing jobs in Rensselaer County with an annual payroll of $10 million. Investment in the facility totals over $165 million, including a capital grant of $10 million from New York State. With a focus on “Clean Technologies”, the building has achieved USGBC LEED Gold Certification, making it one of only two semiconductor manufacturing facilities in the US to achieve this status.

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Global Research has been the cornerstone of GE innovation for more than 100 years, driving new technology breakthroughs that have revolutionized markets and fueled growth for GE’s businesses. While other GE businesses have a long history in New York, this will be the first expansion of high tech medical equipment manufacturing by its Healthcare operation into New York State.

”This a wonderful example of how a long-term commitment to technology can spur the growth of our manufacturing base and create new, high-tech jobs,” said Mark Little, Senior Vice President and Director, GE Global Research. “We spent 15 years developing GE’s revolutionary digital x-ray technology at our Global Research Center in Niskayuna. Today, we celebrate the opening of a new production facility that will manufacture and transfer this innovative technology to all corners of the world.”

GE Healthcare has spent 15 years and more than $200 million developing its innovative digital flat panel X-ray technology, one of the highest performance systems in the industry based on the industry accepted measure known as detective quantum efficiency (DQE). The GE digital flat-panel detector is a critical component of an X-ray system and was designed to provide outstanding image quality and efficiency. . It was intended not only to improve current procedures, but also to be the platform for innovative advanced applications currently in development including Digital Breast Tomosynthesis and Contrast Enhanced Digital Mammography, where low dose and high image quality are essential.

In 2000, GE was the first company to introduce full-field digital mammography for patient use, and today there are approximately 4,000 GE Senographe® digital systems in use worldwide. Utilizing reliable GE technology, more than 95% of all detectors manufactured since 1999 are still in service; offering peace of mind for physicians in their everyday workflow.

GE Healthcare continues to offer the broadest portfolio of digital mammography technology with the Senographe 2000D, Senographe DS and the company’s top of the line digital mammography unit, the Senographe Essential. The construction of the new facility will enable GE Healthcare to meet the growing demand in the market for digital X-ray products used in mammography for breast cancer screening and diagnosis.

“This dedicated Mammography manufacturing facility is a great reflection of the company’s commitment to improving access to high quality healthcare products worldwide,” said Mike Genau, General Manager, Diagnostic X-Ray, GE Healthcare. “The market continues to be in an important transition period from analog to digital technologies and GE mammography offers some of the highest productivity and workflow efficiency in the industry. Despite the economic slowdown, we expect the global market to grow by 5% over the next few years. This new manufacturing facility will be a great asset for the company to meet the needs of our customers and patients all around the world.”

Source: GE Healthcare