From the Heart
GE Healthcare Gift Strengthens Biomed Tech Program

When you need a heart scan or an emergency X-ray, the last thing you want is for the machine to break. Keeping it running smoothly is the job of biomedical electronics technicians trained by Milwaukee Area Technical College.

Thanks to a gift from GE Healthcare, students in the program now will have the benefit of practicing on some of the most advanced equipment available, used in medical centers around the world. The medical diagnostics arm of giant General Electric has donated a complete, state-of-the art, intensive care/cardiac care monitoring system to the college, valued at $350,000.

“This is a partnership in which everybody wins – the college, our students, the industry, and, in the end, patients,” said Darnell E. Cole, MATC president. “It’s just one example of how MATC teams up with industry for the betterment of the community.”

Giant Leap

“We had pretty good equipment, but this is like going from a Piper Cub to a Stealth Fighter,” said John Stilp, dean of technology and applied sciences. “MATC has always prided itself on using the same equipment students will encounter in the field. That would not be possible, in many cases, except for the generosity of industry partners such as GE Healthcare. This gift will help us train technicians who will be able to hit the ground running, with a thorough knowledge of the latest GE medical technology.”

“Hands-on training is a critical element for educational success,” said Gary Bobb, vice president and general manager, global services, GE Healthcare Information Technologies. “This is a significant contribution to the college because we believe that the best resources and experiences create the best learning environments. These students will be better equipped to enter the working world upon graduation, and that benefits our entire community.”

The gift was facilitated by the Biomedical Association of Southeastern Wisconsin, representing biomedical electronic technicians from metropolitan Milwaukee. “GE’s very generous gift will make MATC’s biomedical lab one of the premier facilities of its kind in the country,” said BASW Senior State Delegate Karla Brish, manufacturer services program manager for Universal Hospital Services. “Since the headquarters for GE Healthcare are right here in the Milwaukee area, and they are one of the world’s largest employers of biomedical technicians, it was a perfect fit.”

Techs in Demand

With the baby boom generation aging, biomedical electronics technicians are in high demand, according to William Hodgkinson, associate dean of Technology and Applied Sciences. Hodgkinson said 80 percent of 2003 graduates from the MATC program were working in the field within six months of graduation.

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies that will shape a new age of patient care. GE Healthcare's expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, disease research, drug discovery and biopharmaceuticals is dedicated to detecting disease earlier and tailoring treatment for individual patients. GE Healthcare offers a broad range of services to improve productivity in healthcare and enable healthcare providers to better diagnose, treat and manage patients with conditions such as cancer, Alzheimer's and cardiovascular diseases.

GE Healthcare is a $14 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) that is headquartered in the United Kingdom. Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 42,500 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit www.gehealthcare.com.

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