GE Healthcare and University Partner to Advance Next Frontier in Diagnostic Imaging and Radiology

A collaboration has been established to help physicians inform patients in advance if cancer treatment will work for them, without going through an entire course of chemotherapy.

The University of Wisconsin (UW) School of Medicine and Public Health (Madison, USA), GE Healthcare (Chalfont St. Giles, UK), and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) announced new agreements focused on bringing that vision to life.

The agreements commemorated more than 30 years of research collaboration and technology invention with an anticipated USD 32.9 million GE investment in a state-of-the-art imaging research facility. The center will be located in the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research (WIMR), which is connected to the UW Health Sciences Learning Center and UW Hospital and Clinics.

The 10-year research agreement, under which GE research support is reevaluated and committed annually, comprises GE Healthcare providing up to USD 32.9 million in anticipated research support, including cash funding, diagnostic imaging equipment and research personnel, to support its collaborative research program with UW’s existing departments of Radiology and medical physics, which plans to expand its research activities into additional space in WIMR.

A new patent and technology agreement between GE Healthcare and WARF governs the intellectual property and licensing practices of the research agreement. According to WARF, during the past 11 years collaborations between GE and UW researchers have resulted in nearly 200 invention disclosures, more than 80 filed US patents and numerous licensing agreements and technology improvements.

“Through our collaboration with GE Healthcare, we will have one of the few imaging centers in the world that brings together state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging systems with physicians, engineers, and scientists focused on improving patient care and personalizing medicine, in an environment that is connected to an outstanding academic medical center at UW Hospital,” said Dr. Thomas Grist, chair of the department of radiology at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. “The center will also be a nexus for the development of new products for GE and other Wisconsin-based start-up companies that arose from research in the departments of radiology and medical physics, like Neuwave, Novellos, and Tomotherapy,” Dr. Grist added.

Tom Gentile, president and CEO, GE Healthcare Systems, GE Healthcare, stated the partnership would have not only a global but also a local impact. “GE Healthcare’s research collaboration with UW-Madison not only will yield significant economic benefits to the state of Wisconsin but it will enable us to partner to create protocols that will fundamentally change clinical care both here and around the world,” Mr. Gentile said. “I am proud of GE’s longstanding relationship with these important thought leaders in medical imaging.”

The agreement ushers in the next frontier of medical and imaging research, according to UW School of Medicine and public health dean Dr. Robert Golden. “The long and productive partnership with GE Healthcare has yielded many advancements in imaging, and we look forward to the next era in research,” said Dr. Golden.

Additional research programs anticipated through the joint UW/GE Healthcare program include: (1) providing ultra-low computed tomography (CT) radiation dose imaging applications for the patient population while maintaining diagnostic quality for clinicians; (2) More deeply linking hybrid imaging modalities such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) to both quantify and gauge disease progression; (3) quantification of liver disease for early diagnosis and monitoring of treatment in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, the most common cause of liver disease; (4) lastly, development of new cardiovascular imaging techniques for noninvasive diagnosis of heart and vascular disease.

While molecular imaging is the next frontier in radiology research, the UW and GE Healthcare have collaborated for more than 30 years and have developed imaging equipment and protocols in use worldwide. The partnership has developed cutting-edge MRI protocols for vascular imaging. Current research in CT is developing new techniques to additionally reduce radiation doses for children and adults to levels lower than even the latest cutting-edge innovations. Low-dose CT protocols are already in place for pediatric imaging at American Family Children’s Hospital (Madison, WI, USA) and adult imaging at UW Hospital and Clinics.

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University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
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