GE Healthcare
Technologies

IntegratedCardiology
Workflow
Integrated IT Solutions

Kanoya Heart Center
maximizes medical service
levels in rural Japan with2GE Centricity Carddas Xi
Osaka-born Dr. Hidekazu Arai had a vision – A vision to contribute to a healthyand sustainable future in Japan’s Osumi peninsula through the advanced
treatment of cardiac disease.
Previously, quality medical services had been generally unavailable in rural
Osumi due to the relatively small number of cardiac patients compared to bigger
cities such as Tokyo, but Dr. Arai wanted to change all that.
Working on the belief that patients living in rural areas should not have tocompromise on the quality of medical care, Dr. Arai started to look for means toprovide advanced cardiology services for heart patients when he first arrived at
the Osumi city of Kanoya in 2000.
His search led him to set up the Kanoya Heart Center in 2006, which leverages
on state-of-the-art information technology (IT) from GE to deliver prompt,
effective and service-oriented treatment to his patients.
Challenge• Dr. Hidekazu. Arai wanted to set up a heart center that offers PercutaneousCoronary Intervention (PCI) to patients in rural Osumi.
• In doing so, Dr. Arai had to figure out a management system where he was the
only doctor working with a small number of staff without compromising on
medical service quality.
• In addition, Dr. Arai had to contend with medical staff who were generally
untrained in specialized circulatory organ treatment.
Solution• GE Centricity Carddas Xi2 offers a digital workflow that allows Dr. Arai’s Kanoya
Heart Center to operate with a reduced number of staff yet offer specialized
medical services at comparable quality to larger hospitals.
• In addition, through the Centricity Carddas Xi2 system, all information is shared
amongst the staff at Kanoya Heart Center, accounting for an accelerated
pace of skill acquisition and compensating for the lack of prior experience incirculatory organ treatment on the part of the Center’s co-medical staff.

“I have never heard of any othercenters attaining profitability in justtwo months. Most are still pumping
money into the operation at thatstage. This is proof that both initialand ongoing employment costs havebeen successfully reduced through theadoption of the Centricity Carddas Xi2.”– Dr. Hidekazu AraiCenter DirectorKanoya Heart Center

Assessing the Situation

Having worked in the Osumi-Kanoya Hospital for six years before setting up
the Kanoya Heart Center, Dr. Arai is keenly aware of the medical environment
in Osumi.
With a smaller number of heart patients and no cardiac surgery department,
the Osumi-Kanoya Hospital has been unable to provide PCI, an array ofprocedures used to treat patients with diseased arteries of the heart, eventhough there were doctors who were capable of performing the complex
procedures.
To address the situation, Dr Arai worked to set up a cardiac surgery
department in Osumi-Kanoya that will make it possible for patients toundergo PCI.

“The Centricity Carddas Xi2
system saves precious floor
space and increases the efficiencyof image management as well as
diagnostic duties, eliminating theneed for numerous doctors andco-medical staff.”– Dr. Hidekazu AraiCenter Director
Kanoya Heart Center

However, it was not long before Dr. Arai felt that he had to move on togreater challenges – And that involved delivering even greater quality ofmedical care to his patients.
One of the first issues Dr. Arai needed to face was the general trend ofcentering advanced medical services in urban areas, where there is a higher
concentration of patients that will justify a concerted medical investment.
To counter that trend, Dr. Arai chose to set up his own practice with theKanoya Heart Center, which focuses on delivering PCI services with a leanstaff.
“Hospitals located in low population areas naturally see smaller numbersof cases, which is why I have chosen to establish the Center on my own.
In doing so, I needed to work out a management system where I was theonly doctor working with a small number of staff without compromising onquality,” says Dr. Arai.
“However one major challenge was that there were fewer people who werequalified to work in medicine in Kanoya. None of the allied health medical
staff working here had any specialized experience in circulatory organ
treatment, and most people responding to my recruiting advertisement
through the unemployment office only had experience in general medicine,”
he adds.
This made it hard for Dr. Arai to make a large human capital investment. Yet
the doctor needed to find a way to provide medical care on levels just ashigh as in large cities.
The solution was to rely on IT, and Dr. Arai turned to GE Centricity Carddas Xi2for answers.

Spotlight: Kanoya Heart Centre• Established in October 2006, the Kanoya Heart Center is located in Kanoya City, Japan, a city with atemperate climate in the middle region of the Osumi peninsula in the Kagoshima Prefecture.
• The Center was founded by Dr. Hidekazu Arai, who aims to deliver quality medical care similar to servicelevels in large hospitals at major Japanese cities and contribute positively to a healthy and sustainable
future through cardiac disease treatment in Osumi.
• To date, the Kanoya Heart Centre is a state-of-the-art heart centre structured specially around the needsof cardiac patients who look for specialized treatment with high quality levels.
• Dr. Arai continues to leverage the advanced functionalities of Centricity Carddas Xi2 for Kanoya Heart
Center, pursuing his dreams of seeing the emergence of a completely new mode for medical care inJapan and even worldwide.

Key Technologies• GE Centricity Carddas Xi2 run the entire Kanoya
Heart Center’s administrative, diagnostic andtreatment workflow, digitally storing clinicalinformation collected by electrocardiographs(ECG), echo-cardiography, X-rays, and CAGs,
as well as automating paperwork such ascare plans during hospitalization and hospitaldischarge reports.

Integral Answers• GE Healthcare’s team worked closely with
Kanoya Heart Center staff to ensure worryfree setup and subsequent ongoing remote
maintenance services.
• Choosing Centricity Carddas Xi2 gives Kanoya
Heart Center the digital, automated workflow
it needs to deliver quality medical services
comparable to service levels in large hospitals.
• Centricity Carddas Xi2 delivers the digital
headroom for Kanoya Heart Center to respondto clinical practice in the new age, allowing
the Center to operate with significantly lessstaff than the four to five doctors and a larger
number of co-medical staff typically required
in a hospital’s circulatory organ department.

Delivering the Solution

Deploying a suite of solutions that include Centricity Web, an online-based
upgradeable viewer software; GE 16ch MDCT, a high resolution computed
tomography (CT) scanner; and Angiography Innova 2100IQ, a co-medicalfriendly cardiovascular imaging instrument, the Kanoya Heart Center opened
its doors to the public in October 2006.
And within two months, the Center had not only showed a steady increase inpatients from 9 patients in October, to 15 patients in December, but has also
turned around its operations fully to become profitable in the same period.
Dr. Arai could not be happier,”The financial breakeven point at my Centre has
been extremely low. Of the heart centres that have opened recently, mine is oneof the largest in terms of square footage. However, even in October when weonly performed 10 PCI, we were able to break even.”“The critical point to note was, after only two months of operations, I had beenable to return the principal and pay the lease fees after treating only 15 PCI
cases in December. And there was still enough remaining funds to cover ourincome!” he adds.
Dr. Arai credits the Centricity Carddas Xi2 deployment for the Center’s amazing
turnaround that has allowed him to fulfil his dream of delivering quality medicalcare to rural Osumi.
Doctors specializing in circulatory organs often carry out treatment basedon massive volumes of clinical information collected by electrocardiographs(ECG), echo-cardiography, X-rays, and CAGs, and are also required to fill out
paperwork, such as care plans during hospitalisation and hospital discharge
reports.
Where it is not possible to manage such large volumes of data with a small staff
and still keep service levels up, Dr. Arai acknowledges this is where Centricity
Carddas Xi2 came to the rescue.
Centricity Carddas Xi2 allows doctors to fill out a medical certificate or returna report to the primary doctor regarding a referred patient by accessing
information ubiquitously from a hospital ward, an outpatient clinic, or evenfrom home.

Return on Investment• GE Centricity GE Centricity Carddas Xi2 reduces manual paperwork andeases patient data retrieval for Kanoya Heart Center staff, saving bothtime and money for the Center.
• Through the Centricity Carddas Xi2, Kanoya Heart Center is able to keep
to a lean staff strength comprising one doctor, two radiographers, twophysiological test technicians and one ME, allowing the Center to save
approximately USD 330,000 a year on manpower costs.
• At current staff strength and GE Centricity Xi2 deployment, Kanoya
Heart Center not only sees 200 PCI cases annually, but also expects tobe able to carry out up to 300 PCI procedures annually, marking roomfor even more business growth for the Center.
• With the Centricity Carddas Xi2, initial setup costs and ongoingemployment costs haven been successfully reduced at the Kanoya
Heart Center. Despite being one of the largest heart centers in terms ofsquare footage, the Center has been able to achieve profitability in justtwo months after it began operations, a prospect other heart centers
have been unable to achieve.

“With these workflow enhancements, I believe the quality of the medical care I
offer now is even better than when I was at the major hospital,” says Dr. Arai.
In addition, the ease of use of Centricity Carddas Xi2 allows Dr. Arai to carry out
staff training even whilst on the job, greatly reducing the learning curve for Kanoya
Heart Center staff, who had no previous experience in circulatory organ medicine.
Centricity Carddas Xi2 also allowed Dr. Arai to reduce labour costs and maximise
space efficiencies through the innovative use of IT.
“Our Centre has been cost-conscious from the very start, and so we do not installcabinets to store medical charts or films. Space is money, and all our information
is managed digitally. Furthermore, our staff consists of only one doctor, tworadiographers, two physiological test technicians, and one ME. This saves us up toUSD 330,000 annually,” says Dr. Arai.
But the most critical factor that Centricity Carddas Xi2 lends to Dr. Arai and theKanoya Heart Center is human-friendly IT that boosts the efficiency of the doctor
such that more quality time can be spent with patients to lend much needed
support and appraise patient condition more accurately.
This ultimately translates to the improved patient service that Dr Arai is looking forby setting up the Kanoya Heart Center.
“I believe IT is not heading in the direction of creating ‘cold’, mechanical tools, but‘warm’ tools for the benefit of mankind. When one says that IT is used to enhance
efficiency, you may get a cold, inanimate impression. However, the enhancedefficiency ultimately has given me more time to spend with my patients. Throughthe innovative use of IT solutions such as the Centricity Carddas Xi2, I have realised
a style of medical care that is friendly to both the elderly and people living in rural
areas,” says Dr Arai.
“In essence, I believe that the business model for the Kanoya Heart Centre―
namely, to provide medical services with a small staff without compromisingquality―was a revolutionary idea. And I don’t think GE or I, or anyone for thatmatter, has realised the true potential of Centricity Carddas Xi2. We may be on
the verge of seeing a completely new mode for medical care emerging and I intend
to focus single-mindedly on leveraging it to the greatest extent possible for mypatients at the Kanoya Heart Center,” he adds.

“GE is the only company with acomprehensive proposal centeredaround a support system for circulatoryorgan diagnosis. That is why I feelreassured in having only a single
brand of products at my Center.”– Dr. Hidekazu AraiCenter DirectorKanoya Heart Center© 2007 General Electric Company – All rights reserved.
GE and GE Monogram are trademarks of General Electric Company.
GE Medical Systems, a General Electric company,
going to market as GE Healthcare.

GE Healthcare Technologies―Transforming Cardiac Healthcare

The Centricity® portfolio not only builds on GE’s rich clinical heritage and history
of innovation, but also leverages numerous best practices to ensure that careenterprises continue on a path of continuous advancement.
Be it a routine cardiac check-up or a complex medical procedure such as PCI, careproviders can now make smarter decisions for every patient.
For more than 100 years, scientists and industry leaders have relied on General
Electric for technology, services and productivity solutions.
And no matter what challenges your healthcare system faces, you can always
count on GE to help deliver the highest quality services and support.
For further details, please contact your GE Healthcare representative today.
GE Healthcare―Integrated Information Technology Solutions
To learn more about what Centricity® can do for you,
Visit us at www.gehealthcare.com or write to us at Asia_GE_HCIT@ge.com
Japan Main officeTel: +(81-42) 5853633
Fax: +(81-42) 5826858

Korea Main officeTel: +(82-2) 30166114Fax: +(82-2)-5636974

China Main officeTel: +(8621) 5257 4650
Fax: +(8621) 5208 2008

Australia Main officeTel: +(612)-98464000
Fax: +(612)-98464001

Taiwan Main officeTel: +(886)-2-2516-5280
Fax: +(886)-2-2516-5290

South Asia officeTel: +(91-80) 28452923
Fax: +(91-80) 28452924

Hong Kong officeTel: +(852) 21006300
Fax: +(852) 21006292

SE Asia officeTel: +(60-3) 22739788
Fax: +(60-3)-22736503

New Zealand Main officeTel: +(649)-6493536700
Fax: +(649)-6493536701