fast-scan xenon detector array for general electric's ct/t system provides clearer images with less radiation diagnose disease in the liver for example it aids in diagnosing di lation of bile ducts in jaundice patients and helps the physician select the next definitive diagnostic procedure it's made it possible to see cysts and tumors of the kidney it's also valuable in detecting cancers and cysts in the pancreas the advantages of all this dr margulis believes have not been fully realized yet because we're just at the beginning only a year-and a-half along never since the dis covery of x-rays has there been so much progress in such little time beyond their own personal health care interests general elec tric share owners have a stake in this new technology because it is rapidly shaping into a promising new segment of ge's medical systems division says walter l robb the divi sion's vice president : in our first year we have already received a substantial share of the ct orders placed in the u.s and we are developing a market strategy for europe and japan there are sev eral reasons why hospitals are choosing our equipment leading the list is the fact that it is the most technologically advanced system on the market today in addition the customers know they can de pend on general electric to deliver a quality reliable system backed by the industry's largest and best-trained service organization the fact that general electric was able to move past the com petition and enter the gt market with a leadership technology is a tribute to ge's strength and breadth in research and develop ment according to john f welch jr vice president and compo nents and materials group execu tive this new ct technology required disciplines that go well beyond the conventional x-ray business he states ge's re search and development center in schenectady n y in applying its energies to our ct development put together a team that included mathematicians who had worked on reconstructing earth-satellite picture ; ; physicists who had worked on electronic detectors ; specialists who had been develop ing the latest in micro-electronics and micro-processors for aerospace applications vibration experts who had worked on vibration problems for nuclear reactors and servo-engineers who had worked on military problems in addition we were able to draw on the video display technology of ge's elec tronics laboratory in syracuse n.y by being able to utilize these and other capabilities general electric was able to move very fast with its revolutionary fan beam fast-scan design for a business that is already on a strong growth curve robb sees computerized tomography supply ing a market sector that is destined to grow even more sharply while the u.s spends over 8 of its gross national product for health care he says less than 1 % of this goes for diagnostic imaging equipment we believe dollars invested in diagnostic equipment represent the best in vestment of all reducing overall health care costs while improving the quality of care earlier and more definitive diagnosis with less patient trauma and quicker return to health can result from the ad vances we make this makes diag nostic imaging an important growth business for general electric robb also points out that ct systems are significantly reducing the patient discomfort and the costs associated with many types of procedures to obtain the com plex diagnostic data that ct sup plies people in the past had to be hospital in-patients often for days at a time now with ct they can be out-patients instead getting the ct analyses done in an hour or so general electric's role as the leading u.s producer of medical x-ray equipment traces back to the industry's earliest days when ge scientist dr william d coolidge developed the first successful hot cathode x-ray tube that remains to this day the basic design medical systems division's breakthrough in the new field of computerized tomography helps assure con tinued leadership in health care systems for general electric the end result of ct a diagnostic image below that gives the physician greater detail about the body's soft-tissue areas than has bee available before right patient being prepared for a series of abdominal scans using a ge total body-scanning ct system