GE Healthcare's Magnetic Resonance Imaging receives 2011 IDEA awards

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."