GE Healthcare hosts Middle East Media Summit to spotlight on regional healthcare needs, 'Early Health' model

Over 50 delegates comprising leading medical luminaries, patient associations and media representatives will join GE Healthcare to also discuss the evolving practice of medicine and patient care from treating symptomatic 'late-stage' disease to a focus on earlier pre-symptomatic detection and intervention.

GE Healthcare International President and CEO Reinaldo Garcia will deliver the keynote address focusing on the company's vision for the future of healthcare delivery. The summit will highlight advances in prevention, treatment and diagnosis of cardiovascular disease, cancer and fetal defects. Other sessions will cover healthcare economics and how molecular imaging is transforming the way chronic diseases are being diagnosed.

Today, 70 to 80 per cent of the resources in healthcare are devoted to managing symptom-based, advanced diseases. Shifting resources to "early" health and developing technologies that allow healthcare providers to diagnose disease at the earliest possible stage, when there can be many treatment options, is better medicine and makes economic sense.

GE's 'Healthcare Re-imagined' vision promotes the 'early health' model of care - helping clinicians re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, monitor, treat disease and facilitate access to information, so their patients can live their lives to the fullest.

With the Middle East experiencing a period of significant demographic change including massive population growth and increasing urbanization, there is a huge and unprecedented demand on its healthcare infrastructure, technology and expertise.

"The Middle East has new market drivers today such as a strong private sector, the emergence of health tourism, enterprise selling and shifts in health insurance policies. In parallel, the trend in manageable disease conditions such as obesity, diabetes and stress are on the rise. GE's 'Healthcare Re-imagined' approach encourages healthcare providers and the public to consider shifting their focus from late disease to early health, where there can be many more treatment options,"

said Garcia.

Healthcare experts participating at the summit include: Dr Mousa Akbar, Head of Cardiology Department, Al Sabah Hospital, Kuwait; Dr Zeynep Albayrak, Founding Partner, Neoson Ltd., Turkey; Dr Maha Barakat, Medical & Research Director, Imperial College London Diabetes Centre, Abu Dhabi, UAE; and Dr Mohamed Momtaz, Director of Fetal Medicine Unit, Kasr Al Aini Faculty of Medicine, Egypt.