Professor Atlas cautioned that surgical treatment, allowing the retardation or prevention (through ‘Early Health’ measures) of cognitive diseases, mental illness and learning diseases such as dyslexia were some way off. The new high definition scanners for the first time are revealing hitherto invisible physical lesions and tiny tumors in the brain responsible for these diseases and when sufficient data and diagnoses had been completed it could be possible to surgically treat them just as epilepsy has been surgically treated for many years.

The new technology is embodied in two GE pieces of equipment both cleared for use by the US Food and Drug Administration in May this year: the Signa MR750, the most powerful and easiest to use MR in the world and the LightSpeed CT750 HD, the world’s first high definition CT scanner. The new MR can complete a liver exam in just 15 minutes against the hitherto normal 40 minutes and can now routinely execute a functional brain scan.

The CT750 HD scanner is setting the new standard for clarity, delivering the vision and the tools to allow clinicians to diagnose quickly and confidently. The world’s first high definition CT scanner has at its heart the first new detector material in 20 years; one that is, quite literally, a gem. GE engineers discovered that, by changing the molecular structure of real garnets, they could develop a scintillator capable of delivering images 100 times faster, with up to 33% greater detail through the body and up to 47% greater detail in the heart. Introduced in May this year, the scanner meets patient and clinician demand for radiation dose reduction. Though the laws of physics typically demand an increase in dose for each increase in image quality, GE Healthcare’s CT750 HD improves image quality while reducing dose by up to 50% across the entire body and by as much as 83% for cardiac scans.

The regional director of UK based GE Healthcare Richard di Benedetto, stressed that the company was committed to working with Russian health authorities to achieve their 2020 vision that all neuro-degenerative diseases be diagnosed by age 50, that sudden cardiac death was eliminated and all cancers diagnosed at stage one. Currently 40% are diagnosed at stage four, when the cancer is too advanced to operate. He pointed out that every 90 seconds someone in Russia has a heart attack 2,000 Muscovites are hospitalized with strokes every month and 300,000 people die every year in Russia from cancer.

He pointed out that not only was dramatically improved healthcare a cornerstone of improving the country’s demographics but a 10% increase in life expectancy equaled a 0.4% increase in GDP. He pointed out that by life expectancy he meant a full working life not an existence on life support. The country’s workforce is forecast to fall by 8 million over the next seven years and by up to 19 million by 2025. Russian demographers, in a UN-sponsored report released earlier this year, said the workforce will decrease by 1.3 million per year from 2010 to 2014.

GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric, has 46,000 employees worldwide and operates research centers in Munich, Shanghai, New York and Bangalore. It generates $1.7 bn revenue a year from seven business units and can supply 70% of hospital medical equipment needs in the 100 countries where it operates. It is pumping $1 bn a year into its vision of Early Health that seeks to establish prevention and prediction diagnosis, provide detailed patient information and early diagnosis leading to targeted therapies.

The GE unit has 180 employees in Russia and a presence in all federal districts, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Belarus. Its major competitors are Siemens Medical Solutions, Philips, and Toshiba.

The new generation scanners would cost $3mn or more to install, di Benedetto estimated. Currently they are installed at three sites in the world, two of them in the United States and another I France. Demand is high. The company is trying to complete installations at another 5-10 sites over the next several months according to di Benedetto.

Professor Valentin E . Sinitsin, Head of the Radiology Center of the Federal Treatment & Rehabilitation Center of Roszdravnadzor, a leading Moscow radiologist, expressed a keen interest in the new equipment to have installed in the Center.

Prof. Scott W. Atlas GE HEALTHCARE