The Radiological Society of North America is hosting its annual meeting in Chicago this week, bringing together clinicians and tech professionals from all across the globe to share ideas and showcase the latest innovations in the radiology field.
Year after year, the exhibit hall is crowded by hundreds of companies, ranging from small AI startups to massive medtech incumbents. On Tuesday, I visited one of those large medtech companies — GE HealthCare — to learn more about the announcements and new products it had brought to this year’s show.
New SPECT/CT machine
GE HealthCare unveiled its new dual head SPECT/CT machine, which is designed to expand the range of CT procedures available for patients. The machine, called Aurora, seeks to enhance diagnostic accuracy by combining functional imaging from single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) with anatomical details from standard computed tomography (CT) imaging.
Aurora helps clinicians capture both functional and anatomical details of diseases like cancer and cardiac disorders that rely on precise localization and early detection, said Erdogan Cesmeli, chief strategy, marketing and commercial officer for GE HealthCare’s molecular imaging and CT division.
The machine also improves patient comfort, he added. It offers up to 40mm detector coverage and a 75 cm-wide bore to make patients feel comfortable during high-speed scans.
Cesmeli also noted Aurora is equipped with technology for faster rotation speeds and reduced radiation doses — GE said the machine can decrease radiation doses by up to 25% without compromising lesion detectability.
Aurora is approved and available for sale in the European Union, but the FDA has not yet approved the device.
New mammography system
Pristina Via, a new version of GE HealthCare’s Pristina mammography system, hit the market. The new machine addresses the growing global shortage of radiologic technologists by automating tasks and streamlining workflows.
To design the new machine, GE HealthCare gathered feedback from mammography technologists on their pain points, said Laura Hernandez, chief marketing officer for GE HealthCare’s women’s health & X-ray division.
The system is designed to improve workflows with features for zero-click image acquisition, tools to accelerate comparison of previous exams and rapid image processing that gets rid of wait times between exposures.
Any Pristina device that is already in use can be now upgraded to Pristina Via, Hernandez noted.
Acquisition of Nihon Medi-Physics
GE HealthCare announced plans to acquire Nihon Medi-Physics by purchasing the remaining 50% stake from its parent company, Sumitomo Chemical.
Nihon Medi-Physics is a Japanese company specializing in radiopharmaceuticals used in medical imaging and therapy. Its radiopharmaceuticals are used in imaging for cardiology, neurology and oncology procedures.
Japan has the third largest pharmaceutical market in the world after the U.S. and China, and it has the world’s largest footprint of cyclotrons, which produce the radioactive isotopes needed to make radiopharmaceuticals, pointed out David Morris, the communications director for GE HealthCare’s pharmaceutical diagnostics division.
New AI to accelerate MRI scans
GE HealthCare released Sonic DL for 3D, an AI tool designed to accelerate MRI scans across a range of various clinical applications.
The tool seeks to sharpen image quality to help radiologists of all experience levels to come to a more precise diagnosis. This means that radiographers spend less time toggling, therefore reducing scan time for patients, explained David Famorca, global product marketing manager for GE HealthCare’s MRI division.
This is not the first iteration of GE HealthCare’s Sonic deep learning model, he noted. Last year, the company launched the solution for cardiac imaging only. Now, the tool is available for brain, spine, orthopedic and body imaging as well.
