Siemens 2008 Annual Report Download - page 67

Products and solutions – Healthcare Sector 61
Innovative methods of early detection
Combining leading-edge laboratory and imaging technologies with
healthcare IT solutions
Serious illnesses often go unnoticed until treatment becomes difcult or even impossible. That’s
why it’s all the more important to detect disease early – so that children grow up healthy and
adults stay healthy longer.
We’re the rst fully integrated diagnostics company in the world, bringing together in-vitro
laboratory diagnostics, in-vivo medical imaging and healthcare information technology solutions.
The key to improving diagnoses and treatment is molecular medicine, which enables processes
inside the human body to be understood on the cellular and molecular levels. Illnesses can then
be diagnosed earlier and a more personalized treatment provided. We’re cooperating closely with
scientists and doctors to push developments in molecular medicine and ensure that patients will
increasingly benet from advanced methods and processes in this promising eld.
Biomarkers – such as disease-specic proteins – play an important role in improving early
de tection. Siemens is currently developing new markers for the early recognition of cancer and
Alzheimer‘s disease. Advanced imaging systems – like our PET•CT devices – can localize these
markers and trace their activity. To enable doctors to evaluate all available information, we’ve
developed GeneSim, an Internet-based knowledge portal. Supplied with patient data, GeneSim
searches medical databases around the world to nd out which genes and proteins are directly
connected with a disease, for example, or which medications may be appropriate. The information
extracted by GeneSim is also vital for the development of new tailored medicines. What sounds so
futuristic already exists: at the laboratories of Siemens Corporate Technology, this smart Internet
platform is already operating successfully.