MUNICH – GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company, launched Vivid i, which it bills as the world's first miniaturized, portable cardiovascular ultrasound system. The system is designed to provide clinicians with lightweight high-performance, full-featured imaging. The announcement was made Aug. 30 during the annual European Society of Cardiology meeting in Munich.

Vivid i addresses one of the biggest challenges in cardiovascular care – access to complete, real-time diagnostic information. The new system expands the reach of echocardiography by offering all the functionality and high performance of full-featured premium scale systems – but in a completely portable and wireless design that weighs 30 times less.

In a hospital setting, Vivid i allows patients to receive diagnostic exams at their bedsides versus an imaging lab elsewhere in the hospital, or offsite. The system's full clinical utility also makes it ideal for urgent care areas including the emergency room, critical care, and the operating room, and for mobile imaging services and outpatient clinics looking to expand their cardiovascular services.

Within GE Healthcare, Vivid i is considered an "Imagination Breakthrough" product — a major new invention with powerful effects in the marketplace and great importance to GE's growth.

Vivid i leverages GE's research and development investment in the areas of software-based platforms, hardware miniaturization and connectivity in a new, patented design. According to Omar Ishrak, president and CEO of GE Healthcare's Ultrasound unit, this new system will establish a completely new standard for clinical performance and mobility in the industry.

GE received 510k clearances from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for Vivid i in early 2004 and the system will be commercially available this month.