GE Healthcare’s Centricity Imaging IT Tour 2013 tour neared the end of its five-month journey as it passed through Barrington, Ill., in September. Designed to bring a more intimate trade show experience to the customer, the tour provided a hands-on, in-depth overview to an audience that might not be reached through the traditional trade show booth experience in a creative and engaging way. Healthcare administrators and providers at hospitals and medical centers across the United States and Canada were able to experience GE’s entire line of Centricity Imaging technologies during its stops in more than 30 major markets, visiting more than 60 hospital sites.
According to Don Woodlock, senior vice president and general manager of cardiology IT, healthcare IT and performance solutions, the tour served several layers of purpose; “The tour kicked off at SIIM with the goal of bringing the trade show experience to the people, and also allowed technicians to spend time trying out the various systems and asking questions.”
Woodlock went on to say that of the many takeaways for GE, engaging with customers on this trip was one of the most important. “We had more conversations on the truck than any other setting,” he said. “Diving deeper into this kind of setting is working for us; we’ve had such positive traffic. This will lead us right up to the Radiological Society of North America’s (RSNA) annual meeting.”
According to a GE white paper on Radiologists’ Burden of Inefficiency Using Conventional Imaging Workstations, inefficiencies absorb more than 30 minutes per day, per radiologist. This impacts productivity, quality and also cost. Woodlock explained that up to 90 percent of a radiologist’s day is spent at multiple workstations, and the GE line helps to integrate advanced tool sets into one environment for increased productivity.
Part of the bus tour’s success has been to listen to valuable feedback provided by clinicians to better enhance future generations of the product line. Tim Masters, product manager for Centricity PACS, specialty solutions — imaging healthcare IT and performance solutions, summed up the tour and the equipment development process as an evolution. “It’s all about innovation and the evolution of the product to benefit the customers,” he concluded. “The feedback from this tour has been invaluable to me.”
May 07, 2024 
