June 20, 2024 — GE HealthCare joined the world’s top medical and academic institutions at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) annual meeting to discuss today’s healthcare landscape and announce new precision care tools to meet providers’ most pressing needs – namely the accessibility of technologies and solutions for the global practice of personalized medicine.
More than half of the world’s population is underserved and lacks access to essential health services, and two-thirds have no access to diagnostic imaging. Yet even those who have these services and systems within reach may struggle to receive necessary scans due to the challenges healthcare providers often face in reliably sourcing commercial PET tracers – leaving many patients and medical centers around the world without recourse. These shortfalls, in addition to ongoing healthcare resource and staff shortages, challenge the adoption of precision care globally.
“It’s not enough to develop cutting-edge solutions if they aren’t also made more accessible to clinicians and patients around the world,” shares Jean-Luc Procaccini, President & CEO, Molecular Imaging & Computed Tomography, GE HealthCare. “While there is still much work to be done, we are proud to offer a variety of technologies that can evolve with healthcare system needs and help support a patient’s entire care journey – from the systems required to create the radiotracers used to diagnose and monitor disease, to the imaging equipment used for a noninvasive look at a patient’s anatomy and treatment monitoring, to the software optimized to measure lesion size and dose. In the hands of clinicians, these tools help make the practice of precision care more accessible and aim to help improve patient outcomes globally.”
As clinicians seek to practice more personalized medicine – including Theranostics, a type of precision care that combines diagnostics and therapy – they increasingly look to leverage imaging techniques that more accurately inform diagnoses and measure functional and molecular responses to therapy.
Increasing access to better support patient care
GE HealthCare aims to design and develop a range of products that support these efforts, empowering global healthcare providers to address the needs of all patient populations.
For the practice of precision care in molecular imaging and nuclear medicine, this begins with the production of radioisotopes for use in diagnostic tracers, which are administered to patients, attach to specific biomarkers, and release radioactive emissions to provide clinicians detailed molecular information unique to each patient.
However, as the positive and exponential rise of Theranostics drives greater demand for these radioisotopes (or tracers), the limitations of traditionally used generators have created serious challenges for clinicians and limited patient access.
In response, GE HealthCare is proud to announce the development of its new MINItrace Magni, designed to be a small footprint, cost effective cyclotron for reliable, in-house production of commercial PET tracers and radiometals – like Gallium-68 – through solid target technology. When produced in combination with the company’s TRACERcenter – which is designed to serve as a complete PET radiopharmacy solution – the resulting radiopharmaceuticals can help physicians identify and diagnose clinical signs across care areas – including oncology, cardiology, and neurology.
Adoption of such easy-to-site, easy-to-install technology may help enhance the capabilities of the healthcare system, but also grant clinicians the ability to offer a variety of tracers to their patients and encourage the practice of precision care locally, helping fuel inhouse Theranostics capabilities.
GE HealthCare also designs its systems with accessibility and longevity in mind, recognizing that once a system is acquired for a community, it will be depended on for many years to come. To this end, GE HealthCare broadens its Omni platform with Omni Legend 21 cm, a performance-focused PET/CT that is designed to evolve and help meet growing healthcare system demands across care areas, including: striking image quality in oncology; an ability to accommodate increasing PET amyloid imaging volume related to Alzheimer's diagnosis in neurology; and impressive imaging of a variety of cardiac tracers, including fast decay tracers and new tracers in cardiology.
These abilities are supported by the system’s innovative 21 cm digital detector designed for augmented NEMA sensitivity, in combination with deep learning reconstruction capabilities, advanced digital solutions, and enhanced workflow offerings powered by AI. As a result, Omni Legend is designed to enable clinicians reduce the dose by up to 40%xiv while maintaining exceptional image quality. Effortless Workflow, an AI based patient Auto Positioning solution, also helps address operational and staffing shortage challenges.
Additionally, the Omni platform is scalable, allowing radiology departments and healthcare facilities to upgrade the hardware and add service lines to help meet growing demand as well as optimize clinical capabilities, ensure access to the latest technology, and accommodate evolving community needs for many years to come.
GE HealthCare also offers Omni Legend mobile, an all-in-one portable PET/CT solution that makes the company’s impressive Omni Legend system available to regional or local scan centers and hospitals, helping increase access and reduce the amount of travel required for more vulnerable or remote patient communities.
Software as an enabler of precision care
Ultimately, achieving a more personalized and flexible healthcare experience requires fundamental changes in the way healthcare operates. The system must evolve to be smarter, easier, and more collaborative.
Fortunately, the rise and development of digital and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions makes new tools available to clinicians in the practice of precision medicine.
Revealed for the first time at #SNMMI24, Clarify DL represents a new deep-learning reconstruction technology trained on bone SPECT images to establish a network designed to reduce noise while maintaining contrast. The result is an AI-powered solution designed to deliver clear, accurate, and effortless imaging – a stark contrast to today’s noise reduction techniques, which typically lower contrast and resolution and may impact accuracy and diagnostic confidence.
The new AI-based solution is designed for GE HealthCare’s cutting-edge StarGuide digital SPECT/CT. The system’s 12 CZT detector design not only scans patients in 3D to provide more information to clinicians but is also optimized for certain theragnostic procedures, which in turn helps clinicians pinpoint the size, shape, and position of lesions with exceptional accuracy. It also helps clinicians evaluate the success of therapies and need for treatment follow up.
StarGuide also offers several additional innovations, such as flexibility in patient scanning, workflow efficiencies that help reduce complexities and processing time in Theranostics as well as scanning protocols, such as Dynamic SPECT imaging.
“Theranostics is awesome – it’s a life extender,” shares Doug, a Theranostics patient scanned on BAMF Health’s StarGuide system. “This is nothing short of a miracle. I can’t believe we’re seeing this in our lifetime.”
In the spirit of advancing Theranostics and providing clinicians additional digital solutions to help improve patient outcomes, GE HealthCare recently acquired MIM Software with the aim of delivering innovative digital solutions – including MIM Encore and MIM SurePlan MRT– across care pathways for precise, connected, and efficient care across disease states. Collectively, MIM Software’s full portfolio of vendor neutral solutions offer clinicians workflow automation and flexible configuration options for excellent flexibility, automation, and efficiency. This includes streamlined processing, structured reporting, fast and high-quality contouring, advanced image fusion, dosimetry capabilities, easy IT integration, and remote access – helping to boost healthcare productivity and promote personalized patient care.
Product life extension & upgrades
GE HealthCare is also proud to offer global refurbished medical equipment, helping to improve access to affordable, quality healthcare. High-quality refurbished medical equipment is a viable diagnostic imaging option for hospitals seeking to stretch their budgets by purchasing used, but still exceptionally good, systems.
Additionally, with technology advancements and software upgrades, the lifespan of equipment can be extended and enhanced to help improve clinical outcomes.
Today’s healthcare access challenges demand creative solutions to solve complex problems. At GE HealthCare, the answer is new and modular systems, innovative digital and AI solutions, and refurbished equipment – all in the pursuit of increasing access to and the practice of precision care for earlier, more precise, and accessible diagnosis and treatment of patients around the world.
For more information: gehealthcare.com
July 30, 2024 
