GE Healthcare Wins Design Excellence Awards for Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Chosen from over 2000 entries from 39 countries, GE Healthcare Discovery MR750w combines caring design, insightful technology
Waukesha, WI– July 7, 2011—GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), today announced it received several Silver Awards from the 2011 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA®) for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA).
Considered by many as the “Oscars” of design competitions because the judging process is rigorous and judged by experts in their field, GE Healthcare won three IDEA Silver Awards-- for the Discovery** MR750w 3.0T wide bore magnetic resonance imaging scanner, featuring the company’s unique caring design and insightful technology, a pediatric magnetic resonance imaging scanner concept called Nino*** and an extremity*** MRI concept.
“GE is honored to receive the 2011 IDEA awards for MRI,” said Jacques Coumans Ph.D., general manager of Premium MRI at GE Healthcare. “At GE Healthcare MRI we realize that the most direct way to influence the perception of our products is through their design. When we asked our GE Global Design group to visualize our patient centered strategy and to help humanize radiology through an iconic design for the new generation of wide bore MRI systems, that is exactly what they did – they created a look and feel that makes patients feel at ease when they undergo an MR exam”.
“We’re very pleased to win such a prestigious industrial design awards,” said Lionel Wodecki, design architect with the Global Design team at GE Healthcare, Buc, France. Wodecki, who designed the two concepts and the Discovery MR750W added, “At GE Healthcare, form and function increasingly go hand in hand. And rightly so, as medical equipment has a tendency to be scary, cold and robotic, from the patient’s point of view.”
GE Healthcare’s most recent example of innovation in design is in its newest line of MR scanners - the Discovery MR750w. Added Wodecki, “We designed the Discovery MR750w with one thing in mind: the human element. This focus created a new direction for us and should influence the next generation of our products for years to come.”
The 2011 IDEA jury, made up made up of 20 international design experts coming from design consultancies, corporations and universities, spent weeks previewing entries online and two-and-a-half days of face-to-face evaluation and debate at the Henry Ford Museum. Judging criteria focused on eight areas of industrial design excellence: innovation; benefit to the user; benefit to society; benefit to the client; visual appeal and appropriate aesthetics; usability, emotional factors and unmet needs for the design research category; and internal factors, methods, strategic value and implementation for the design strategy category.
In recent years, the Global Design team at GE Healthcare has been playing a more prominent role in the development of the company’s imaging products, not only to enhance the user’s experience, but to help put patients at ease when they are at their most vulnerable. GE Healthcare has won 10 medals during the last three years.
Learn more about the Transformative Power of Industrial Design.
https://www.gehealthcare.com/insights?showPopup=false
*** Technology in development that represents ongoing research and development efforts. These technologies are not products and may never become products. Not for sale. Not cleared or approved by the FDA for commercial availability.
** Not available in all regions. Pending FDA 510(k) clearance. Not available for sale in the U.S.
*trademark of General Electric Company
About IDEA
Started in 1980 by IDSA, the International Design Excellence Awards program (IDEA®) fosters business and public understanding about the impact of design excellence on the quality of life and the economy. The IDEA program is considered one of the most preeminent design competitions in the nation with its scope and influence reaching far beyond U.S. boundaries.
About IDSA
Founded in 1965, the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) is one of the world’s oldest, largest, member-driven societies for product design, industrial design, interaction design, human factors, ergonomics, design research, design management, universal design and related design fields. IDSA produces the renowned International Design Excellence Award® (IDEA) competition annually; hosts the International Design Conference and five regional conferences each year; and publishes Innovation, a quarterly journal on design, and designBytes, a weekly e-newsletter highlighting the latest headlines in the design world. IDSA's charitable arm, the Design Foundation, supports the dissemination of undergraduate scholarships annually to further industrial design education. The organization has more than 3,000 members in 27 chapters in the U.S. and internationally. For more information, visit http://www.idsa.org.
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 around the world. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employees are 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.
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Media Contacts:
GE Healthcare
Rebecca Hayne
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414-248-1542
