GE Healthcare, the $17 billion healthcare business of General Electric Company (GE), has said it will witness a 12-15 per cent consistent growth over the 10 years in the SAARC region.

With lifestyle diseases on the rise in the region including in India, GE wants to increase the proportion of locally-manufactured devices sold in India.

“This region will fuel the growth in medical devices industry,” said V Raja, president and CEO, GE Healthcare.

For instance, GE had relaunched the mobile cath lab after re-designing it to make it more attractive to healthcare providers here. It has helped the Vivus group take ‘heart care’ to the doorstep of people with the help of mobile cath labs. With a focus on providing “affordable diagnosis” of ailments, GE Healthcare aims to make technology affordable with the right cost structure.

India’s healthcare sector has been growing rapidly and is expected to be worth $40 billion by 2012, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers in its report, ‘Healthcare in India: Emerging Market Report 2007’. Revenues from the healthcare sector account for 5.2 per cent of the GDP, making it the third largest growth segment in India.

The rising middle class population of the country, which can now afford quality healthcare, seems to be the biggest contributor to the stellar growth of the sector.

Meanwhile, GE has tied up with the Manipal Heart Institute for mobile cardiac screening and has entered into similar tie-ups with Vivus to provide cardiac care to rural patients.

GE has also tied up with the NGO NICE foundation for providing sustainable healthcare in maternal-infant care, diabetes and IP care, and has partnered Grameen Health, a part of the Bangladesh’s micro-financer Grameen Bank, to help address needs of some four billion people globally.

NICE Foundation, is an NGO that equips, enhances and partners NGOs, community-based organisations by implementing need-based social care and development projects, training, research, publication and consultancy services.

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