GE Healthcare and CTSI announced to set up 25 cancer detection and treatment centres in India

Who: GE Healthcare and CTSI
Where: across India
What: set up 25 cancer detection and treatment centres

GE Healthcare and US-based Cancer Treatment Services International (CTSI) announced on 25 March 2014 to set up a chain of 25 cancer detection and treatment centres in India. The two companies will be jointly investing 720 crore rupees over the next five years.
The partnership was a part of GE’s 1 billion dollar commitment to Research and Development to diagnose cancer. The main focus was to make detection and treatment of cancer timely, affordable and easy to get treated anywhere in the world.
As part of the deal, GE would provide equipment while CTSI would take care of treatment, doctors, medical personnel and related services.
Also, both the companies will be starting the first few centres in Andhra Pradesh as a hub-and-spoke model, and later try it out in other countries that have similar conditions.
Besides, GE is also developing low-cost diagnostic technologies in India and for India for various diseases and out of them 100 will be targeting cancer alone. For instance, recently it launched a low-cost version of PET-CT which is widely used to find cancerous tumours.
In India there were three million persons affected by cancer and these numbers are rising sharply. Also, the fatality rate (the persons dying from cancer) was high on account of late detection and high cost of treatment. Every year 1.23 million new cases were showing up.
About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare is a unit of General Electric Company Worldwide headquartered in the United Kingdom. It has branches across the world. GE Healthcare Services is dedicated to address healthcare system growth, quality, and operational excellence.
Chairman and CEO of GE Healthcare is John Dineen.
About CTSI
Cancer Treatment Services International (CTSI) is a US based privately-held provider of comprehensive clinical and administrative solutions for the treatment of cancer and other complex diseases. It was founded in 2006.
In 2012, CTSI had set up the 250-bed American Oncology Institute in Hyderabad.
CTSI President and CEO is Joe Nicholas.