LAUREL, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GE Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:GE) today announced it will partner with the East Meets West Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving health outcomes for children in Asia, to distribute GE’s Maternal Infant Care solutions in developing and rural regions. Specifically, East Meets West will distribute GE Healthcare’s Lullaby ™ warmers, incubators and phototherapy equipment through its Breath of Life program, which provides clinical solutions to significantly reduce neonatal mortality and morbidity in developing countries.
November 17 is the World’s first Premature Awareness Day and what better opportunity to remind the public of the prevalence of premature death around the world, and specifically in developing nations. In India alone there are an estimated 27 million births each year, with over 2 million premature births and over 1 million infant deaths. The United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG4) aim to reduce child mortality by 2/3 by the year 2015. While projects focused on improving nutrition and providing clean water and lifesaving vaccines have done wonders in reducing deaths of children five and under, more must be done to achieve the MDG4 goal. In many countries, infant death is now the leading cause of under-5 child mortality.
East Meets West’s Breath of Life goes beyond providing specialized equipment to hospitals. The program also provides comprehensive support to providers, including intensive clinical training for medical personnel, frequent monitoring, three-year warranties, advanced medical conferences and on-site clinical evaluations.
“Increasing access to low-cost neonatal care solutions in developing regions supports our healthymagination commitment to deliver high-quality, affordable healthcare to more people worldwide,” said Carrie Eglinton Manner, General Manager of GE Healthcare’s Maternal Infant Care business. “We are excited to work with East Meets West to not only distribute our Lullaby solutions, such as warmers and phototherapy products, but to collaborate in the development of additional technologies to help save the lives of newborns in underserved, rural areas.”
Through the partnership with GE Healthcare, East Meets West will be able to serve a larger number of communities, with initial plans to expand distribution in India, the Philippines and Indonesia over the next several years. The organization will also share important insights from its work with healthcare providers in the field to support the development of new technologies customized to the needs of patient populations in the rural and developing regions East Meets West serves and that GE Healthcare can help bring to life through their expertise in engineering, manufacturing and distribution.
“Partnering with GE Healthcare will enable East Meets West to rapidly and significantly expand our services to more communities in Asia and eventually beyond,” said John Anner, President of the East Meets West Foundation. “The expertise and distribution capabilities that GE offers, as well as our shared passion for improving access to low-cost healthcare solutions, will allow us to truly impact infant mortality in developing regions.”
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.
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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About East Meets West (EMW)
East Meets West (EMW) has been working in Asia for 23 years, developing and deploying innovative, cost-effective solutions to problems such as infant mortality, congenital heart defects, lack of access to clean water, and poor educational outcomes for low-income students. In partnership with Atlantic Philanthropies, EMW has also developed a number of modern hospitals and higher education facilities.
Launched in Vietnam, EMW is now active in seven countries in Asia, including India and the Philippines.
For more information please see www.eastmeetswest.org