General Electric Co. has long been developing medical research and care giving goods and services; GE Medical Systems is an $8 billion global leader in medical imaging, interventional procedures, healthcare services, and information technology. Its offerings include networking and productivity tools, clinical information systems, patient monitoring systems, surgery and vascular imaging, conventional and digital X-ray, computed tomography, electron beam tomography, magnetic resonance, ultrasound and bone mineral densitometry, positron emission tomography, nuclear medicine,Hypnotherapy and a comprehensive portfolio of clinical and business services. For more than 100 years, health-care providers worldwide have relied on GE Medical Systems for high quality medical technology and productivity solutions. For more information, visit the GE Medical Systems Web site at www.gemedical.com

The incorporation of digital medical records should improve the treatment process in specialized clinical or care-giving environments. GE Medical Systems announced plans to help build the nation's first all-digital heart hospital, The Indiana Heart Hospital, in Indianapolis. Scheduled for completion in December 2002, the $60 million, 210,000-square-foot "hospital of the future," will be the most advanced specialty hospital ever built delivering a new level of care for cardiovascular disease by eliminating paper and film-based medical records.

"We'll be providing our patients with the most advanced, specialty care hospital available today to combat heart disease," said David Veillette, CEO of The Indiana Heart Hospital. "We're so totally committed to a paperless, filmless and wireless environment that we won't even have nursing stations. Instead, our caregivers can input and retrieve patient information right at the bedside, which helps them deliver safer, more accurate patient care."

It is clear that digital and electronic medical records have a place in the modern hospital environments and that individual doctors, clinics, departments of hospitals, universities and research facilities must integrate electronic record generation and maintenance programs into their day-to-day operations--especially now with HIPAA regulation in effect.