Etisalat signs strategic MoU agreement with GE Healthcare

1. Focus on medical data management & remote clinical support services to improve UAE healthcare standards
2. Further facilitates Etisalat’s vision of “Connected Healthcare”

Etisalat, one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world and GE Healthcare, the US$17 billion healthcare business of General Electric Company (GE) today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to mark their strategic alliance to introduce the latest healthcare solutions in the UAE. This is part of a joint initiative aimed at making the most of the synergies between healthcare and telecom to set the highest standards for healthcare in the region.

In healthcare, access to timely information is critical. Moreover, it can help clinicians make better decisions, potentially leading to more efficient healthcare delivery and a reduction in healthcare costs. Etisalat, with its expertise in infrastructure connectivity, will leverage GE Healthcare’s innovative solutions and expertise in capturing patient information. This strategic combination will result in the development and offering of medical data management and remote clinical support services via Etisalat’s state-of-the-art telecom infrastructure. This alliance will further facilitate Etisalat’s vision of “Connected Healthcare” whereby ICT (Information & Communication Technologies) can be used to improve patient care and safety while reducing costs.

According to Abdulla Hashim, Sr. VP, Business Solutions, Etisalat, “This agreement with GE Healthcare is a significant development and will build on our respective strengths to introduce innovative solutions that will help the UAE to move past legacy infrastructure and processes towards next-generation diagnostic services. There is great potential for integrating ICT into healthcare systems. This is where we can use Etisalat’s expertise and infrastructure to make the healthcare process more efficient in addition to reducing the cost of healthcare.”

An area of cooperation to be explored between Etisalat and GE Healthcare will be in cardiology systems with both partners working together to introduce the MUSE Cardiology Information system on a SaaS (Software as a Service) business model to provide more accurate cardiac assessments to hospitals and clinics. GE’s MUSE ECG data management system provides ECG (Electrocardiogram) data for patients and facilitates access to ECG data. This makes it possible for doctors to review and edit studies on-line, from the comfort of their hospital or home, anytime on a 24×7 basis.

The other potential benefit of such a service would be in the insights it could provide to the Government’s health departments about cardiology data relating to residents across the UAE. The departments will now be able to track cardiology data, analyze the state of healthcare and build profiles to create an ongoing information base to monitor and improve cardiology standards.

“Partnering with Etisalat will be an enabler in providing high end solutions also for rural areas. Aligned with GE’s new healthymagination initiative around our commitment to developing innovations and improving the state of health globally, by connecting small clinics together with big centres or even nationwide networks, this can help towards giving the same quality of care and providing a high level of diagnostic expertise to every resident,” said Mazen Dalati, Regional Executive Manager, Devices, EMEA region at GE Healthcare.

“Measuring the ECG is an important diagnostic tool and GE is known for its solutions and the diagnostic confidence that comes from GE Healthcare’s algorithms like the proven Marquette® 12SL™ ECG analysis program. Starting this partnership with our MUSE ECG data management solution is the natural step forward.”

In terms of potential services, both Etisalat and GE Healthcare will also explore joint areas of cooperation in telemetry applications, asset management through in building RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology including Picture Archiving & Communication Systems (PACS).

About Etisalat:
Etisalat is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world and the largest operator in the Arab world headquartered in the UAE (as per FT 500 March 31, 2009). Etisalat operates in 17 countries across Asia, the Middle East and Africa, servicing over 90m customers out of a total population that exceeds 1.7bn people. In 2008, Etisalat reported annual net revenues of AED 26.119 billion and net profits of AED 8.665 billion. Etisalat reported net profit of AED 4.593 billion and net revenues of AED 14.744 billion for the first half of 2009. Etisalat is a major investor in Thuraya, one of the world’s leading satellite geo-mobile communication systems covering approximately two thirds of the planet’s surface.

About GE Healthcare:
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance solutions services help our customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In addition, we partner with healthcare leaders, striving to leverage the global policy change necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable healthcare systems.

Our “healthymagination” vision for the future invites the world to join us on our journey as we continuously develop innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality and efficiency around the world. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a US$17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com.