The Place Where Emergency Care Belongs
The average adult’s heart beats about 70 times a minute. With each beat, the left ventricle of your heart is pumping blood throughout your body, delivering the nutrients essential for you to wake up each morning, go to bed each night—and live, in between.
But what happens when that left ventricle can’t pump that oxygen-rich blood 70 times a minute? Your cells, the roughly 100 trillion, microscopic building blocks of the body simply cannot survive. When they say it’s the little things in life that matter—they’re not lying.
My name is Jason Castle, and I am a biologist five days out of the week, and an EMT for seven. There are a few things that make both of these roles very important. As an EMT or first responder, my job is to get to the scene and figure out what the patient needs—fast. For critical patents (the ones with oxygen-deprived cells), time is everything. Seconds matter. While we cannot give all medications, we can give oxygen to keep that essential component of blood flowing to the cells until we determine the issue at hand heart.
The next step? Get to the hospital, ASAP.
If you live far, it could take at least 30 minutes to transport. And that’s just arriving. What about the time it takes to get an x-ray of the heart and to analyze that image to understand what’s wrong? As an EMT, I understand first hand the criticality of time. I’ve heard stories of hearts diminishing from 70 beats per minute, to 50, to 20, to flatline. Sometimes, there’s not much we can do, but other times—there is.
Becoming an EMT has made me realize the importance of my day job. I, along with many others, am researching technology that can significantly reduce the time it takes to get to definitive care. I’m talking no more long rides to the emergency room where the true care begins, but in the place where emergency care belongs—the back of an ambulance.
What if you could see the heart right when the patient complains of chest pain? How about if you can see the heart in ways a still image just cannot capture? What if you could treat that patient, right when that real-time image depicts a sign of soon-to-be cellular danger?
In the below video, you’ll hear about the technology researchers are working on that will make time no longer the problem, but part of the solution. If we can start care within minutes of identifying the issue with the patient, outcomes would could be a lot different and the world of emergency medicine would change, as we know it.
As National Emergency Medical Services week is under way, I am proud to be a part of an organization of people who are working to save lives each day. It’s these people who inspire me to help develop this technology that could lead to less time in emergency rooms and more time with loved ones.
Check out the video below as well as some photos of our Emergency Medical Services team here at Global Research, comprised of fire, rescue, HAZMAT and EMTs.
Emergency Medical Services Team at GE Global Research
Engine 5, Protecting Our Future
Our Chief, Richard Kasko
GE Global Research Wins Manufacturing Leadership 100 Award
NISKAYUNA, NY, May 22, 2013 – GE Global Research today announced that it has won a prestigious Manufacturing Leadership 100 award in recognition of its work to build a new, cloud-based, software platform that enables a global community of experts to share ideas, design, and build complex cyber-physical systems securely on the Internet. GE researchers Joseph Salvo, Thomas Citriniti, and Benjamin Beckmann accepted the award on behalf of the company during last week’s Manufacturing Leadership Summit in Palm Beach. FL.
“The ML100 Awards honors breakthrough technologies shaping the future of manufacturing, and GE’s successful demonstration of a cloud-based crowdsourcing platform shows how complex product design and development can be taken to another level,” said Jeff Moad, Research Director, Manufacturing Executive/Frost & Sullivan. “In the quest to meet faster product cycle times, it’s platforms like GE’s that will help manufacturers work at the breakneck speeds required to compete effectively in the global marketplace.”
Development of the crowdsourcing software platform was a joint venture announced in April 2012 between GE, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The software is designed to allow DARPA to solicit and attract new ideas and concepts that could shape the design and manufacture of military vehicles and other complex defense systems. Scientists, engineers, and others can use the software to team-up on projects and freely submit, re-use, re-shape, or build upon designs that have been shared. As they evolve, designs can be tested and vetted by those in the crowd.
The new crowdsourcing platform is a key part of GE’s efforts to leverage the Industrial Internet to drive growth. It will connect data, design tools and simulations in a collaborative environment to accelerate the design of highly complex industrial systems.
“This is great recognition for the team and a testament to the work we’ve undertaken in an effort to make manufacturing smarter,” said Joseph Salvo, Manager of the Business Integration Technologies Lab at GE Global Research. “We’ve developed software that can virtually connect some of the best and brightest minds to tackle some of the most critically important manufacturing challenges. We’re seeing the evolution of manufacturing into a high-tech enterprise.”
In its ninth year, the ML100 Awards celebrates companies and individuals committed to breakthrough innovation that enables them to anticipate and quickly meet customer needs. Winning projects are chosen based on voting by a panel of expert judges. GE Global Research was honored in the “Innovative Enterprise Award” category in which winners showed “accelerated product and process innovation through collaboration with customers, partners, and internal stakeholders; the implementation of standard, measurable processes; and the deployment of advanced technologies…projects in this category will demonstrate positive impacts on operating results and process efficiencies,” according to contest criteria.
To see the original press release which includes media contact information, click here.
Technology “Relay Race” Against Cancer — VIDEO
May is National Cancer Research Month, declared by the United States Congress in recognition of high quality, innovative cancer research. Our friends, parents, children and families are touched by cancer daily, it’s in the news and in our lives. According to World Cancer Research Fund, there will be an estimated 21 million cancer cases by 2013.
I am so proud to work for a research organization with programs looking at so many aspects of medical technologies that are impacting every stage of cancer patient care. The high quality, innovative research we are doing each day is getting us closer to the finish line of this race against cancer.
In honor of Cancer Research Month, a few of my colleagues and I have joined together to talk about the programs we are working on and how they will impact the entire continuum of Cancer Research, from detection and diagnosis to treatment and prevention.
Many of the projects have a targeted goal for a specific cancer, such as lung, breast and liver cancer. Other research we are working on here is characterizing the cancer, so that new screening and early identification of potential markers could change and guide precision medicine, health and wellness approaches.
In the video below, you’ll hear more about these projects and you’ll meet some of the amazing researchers behind them. Take a look and share with your family and friends. We are proud to be a part of this race and in the words of my colleague Ashwin Wagadarikar, “This race, like any other race, will have a finish line.”
Flex Ability: It’s balancing work with life
Hi. I’m Kelly Piacsek, General Manager, Global Technologies at GE Healthcare in Waukesha, WI. I have a wonderful husband (Tom) and three amazing and energetic children, Jackson (7), Lucas (5) and Reagan (2). We rely on each other and our amazing extended family to navigate school activities, sports schedules, birthdays, off-hour teleconferences, business travel and lots of surprises.
Families work together to make each other better, and my “work family” is no exception. Just as I couldn’t succeed in my job without help and encouragement from home, I am also blessed to have a GE team who understands my personal priorities as a mom and my desire to be present in those little moments that make life worth living. For me, flexibility is about being honest about your priorities so that team members, at work or at home, can support each other in what’s important. When you can achieve this, you really don’t have to choose.
As my family has grown, I have come to appreciate the value of great coaches. I have amazing people in my life who push me, encourage me and frequently lead me through life’s challenges. Having coaches who know my strengths and my struggles, and who celebrate my successes as their own, allows me to set priorities and hold myself accountable every day.
I encourage you to embrace those people in your life who make you better. The concept of “work-life balance” is somewhat elusive to me, but I believe we can achieve “harmony” when we work with people who truly care for one another. We have an important responsibility to set priorities, communicate them, and follow through on our commitments, both at home and at work. When you’re not sure what to do or how to do it, look around you – help is everywhere. You just have to ask.
Researchers Bring Their Little Scientists To Work
There has been a lot in the news lately about improving STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education and how to engage kids today in STEM.
The White House started its own initiative to improve STEM education with Change the Equation. Many have predicted a STEM talent gap in the US and note the underrepresentation of women and minorities in STEM fields (women hold nearly half the jobs in the US, but account for less than 25% of all the STEM jobs).
At Global Research, one of the things that we do to help get kids excited about STEM is to share our experiences and passion with students from the surrounding areas by introducing them to our diverse careers as technologists. Last week we had such an opportunity with a very special group of students—our own children!
On Friday, May 3rd GE Global Research hosted our annual event Bring your Child to Work Day. I was excited to be able to participate this year with my 11- year old stepson Alex, and expose him to the many different types of STEM careers here at GE.
After visiting the photo booth and getting our picture with Thomas Edison, the day’s events kicked off with 300+ kids doing some early morning calisthenics. Next up GE materials scientist, Chris Dosch demonstrated some materials properties to the kids using balloons, racquetballs, and liquid nitrogen. I am pretty sure every kid in that room now knows the boiling point of liquid nitrogen (-321°F, in case you are wondering). We even took home a piece of shattered racquetball souvenir so Alex could show his friends and tell them all about the demo.
Some of the highlights from the day include:
- Watching a Makerbot 3D printer make GE monograms (another souvenir).
- A thermal image with IR camera of Alex (yet another souvenir).
- Watching the waterjet cut through pennies to make a smiley face. Did you know that the speed of the water jet is twice the speed of sound? I was told twice on the way home!
A thermal image with IR camera of Alex!
The best part of the day was watching how engaged Alex and the other kids were during the science demos. The words “that was the coolest thing I have ever seen” were uttered in leaving the CT demo (they were demonstrating CT slice technology on a piggy bank and a Darth Vadar Potato Head). For the older kids, there was even a STEM career round table where researchers at GE talked with students about what it is like to work in engineering/science at GE.
We live in a pretty rural area and this was really the first time Alex has ever been exposed to these kinds of science and computer demos. It was great for him to experience these technologies and learn about it from the technologists working in these areas. Maybe one day Alex will be designing the next CT machine or developing the next generation advanced manufacturing technology. Or maybe he will be a fireman like he says. Either way, it was refreshing to see his excitement around our technology and I hope that this experience will help him understand why I am so passionate about my career in STEM!
Check out the video below to hear from some of the little scientists that attended Take Your Child To Work Day!
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