Bangalore, March 28, 2014 – GE Healthcare has partnered Cancer Treatment Services International (CTSI) in a project  to develop 25 world-class centres across India to improve access to cancer care. The network will be built at an investment of $ 120 Million,  over a period of five years.  The centres will offer latest technology for diagnosing and treating cancer and will follow the same standards of care found at the world’s top cancer hospitals delivered at affordable price points. 
The announcement was made  in Bangalore, earlier this week, at a media event jointly addressed by John Dineen, President and CEO, GE Healthcare and Joe Nicholas, President and CEO, CTSI.
Said Dineen:  “At GE, we envision a day when Cancer is no longer a deadly disease.  Scaling up of affordable access to Cancer care requires disruptive solutions and willing partners. Combining GE Healthcare’s innovative technology platforms with CTSI’s proven expertise in operating cancer centers affords a fantastic means to tackling cancer early in India.”
Added Nicholas: “CTSI has built a proven healthcare delivery model tailored to making the highest quality cancer care accessible and affordable.  When we launched our international operations, India was a natural place to start.  It offers existing medical infrastructure, a pool of talented doctors and a population with the desire to embrace top-notch standards of care.  Our partnership with GE accelerates realization of our goal to build out a network in India and ultimately apply our model in similar markets worldwide.”
The partnership underscores four critical points to elevate the access, affordability and standard of cancer care in India.  GE and CTSI will configure the network in a hub-and-spoke fashion, with all centers linked by a sophisticated IT network to a hub and supported by a multi-national group of clinicians, and administrators. The hub will be a centre of excellence with full diagnostic imaging and treatment capabilities while the spoke will have the ability to deliver a range of screening, staging and treatment options. The first hub center, American Oncology Institute, CTSI’s international brand, is already operational in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh.  The first spoke or remote centre is being set up in Andhra Pradesh.
The incidence of cancer is sharply rising in India with a prevalence of 3 million cases and an addition of 1.23 million new cases every year*.
Cancer Treatment Services International, Inc. (CTSI) is a provider of university-level, comprehensive treatment for cancer patients with a main focus on medical oncology and radiation oncology.
 GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services to meet the demand for increased access, enhanced quality and more affordable healthcare around the world.

We have for a few days, a video on the American Oncology Institute, Hyderabad, in our Tech Video spot on the home page