New
Healthymagination initiative enlists imaging, mobility and HIE in battle
against breast cancer
NEW YORK – When you're one of the largest and
most profitable companies in the world, you can afford to make big statements –
pitting big money and big know-how against big problems.
That's just what GE is doing with a new
multi-pronged, five-year, $1 billion initiative meant to speed breast cancer
innovation, improving diagnostics and care for 10 million people worldwide.
"We envision a day when cancer is no
longer a deadly disease," said Jeff Immelt, GE’s chairman and CEO.
"When you add our cutting edge cancer detection technologies to the innovative
ideas of our new partners, it's a powerful formula for tackling cancer and
helping doctors and researchers improve care."
One of the centerpieces of the project is a
$100 million open innovation challenge, launched in conjunction with several venture
capital firms, to identify and bring to market ideas that advance diagnostics –
especially for triple negative breast cancer – a more aggressive and less
responsive form of the disease. Researchers and entrepreneurs are encouraged to
devise new ways to map molecular structures of breast and other solid tumors,
with an eye toward better diagnosis and more personalized therapies.
(Submissions will be accepted through November 20.)
But on the health IT front, two of the more
exciting areas of innovation have to do with imaging, mobile health and health
information exchange.
One of the facets of the Healthymagination
initiative is the development of a so-called "super database" that
can consolidate clinical, pathology, therapy and outcomes data in one place.
Currently in development alongside research, NGO and government organizations,
the database will make use of cancer data from GE' subsidiary Clarient, its
Medical Quality Improvement Consortium, the Premier healthcare alliance and the
Department of Health & Human Services, all with an eye towards
"fingerprinting" the different tumors in each individual patient.
"We think this is the right time,"
says Lisa Kennedy, Healthymagination's director of strategic marketing.
"Given the sequencing of the human genome, I think we're on a big tipping
point right now in oncology."
We'll learn more in the next five years about
cancer than we've learned in "probably the last hundred," she says –
and the way to help bring that about is to truly make use of vast and often
underutilized stores of data. "We're now in the position where we have a
lot more data then we really have the power to analyze. And every minute we're
adding more and more. We think there is an opportunity to put everything in one
place."
Within the secure database will be stored a
patient's tests, their procedures, data on how long they've had the disease and
how they've responded to particular treatments, the characterization of an
individual tumor's fingerprint – all crucial info that can help identify the
best treatment protocols for a vast array of patients.
"We spoke recently to 200 oncologists,
radiologists and pathologists," says Kennedy, "and their number one
need, when they look at a patient, is to be able to say, 'From my existing
arsenal, what have I got that this patient is most likely to benefit from?'"
At the moment, Kennedy says GE has letters of
intent for a number of entities who want to contribute to the database. She
wouldn't name names, but did mention "cancer networks that have an
astounding number of very specific pieces of data."
The best way to think of the mammoth project
is "as an HIE for oncology," she says – something "which
currently doesn't exist in the scope and the nature we need it to be."
As impressive as the size and scope – and the
potential for advancement the super database represents – is the timeline for
its development. "It's our goal to have this ready in six months,"
says Kennedy. "It's an ambitious goal. And that's why we've taken it
on."
Other breakthroughs on the horizon for GE
include a new imaging technique that should be available stateside in the near
future and a new mobile mammography concept that could help bring lifesaving
screenings to underserved areas around the world.
GE's new SenoBright application is a contrast
enhanced spectral mammography (CESM) technology that can help enable more
precise identification of breast cancer incidence for over a million women by
2020, officials say. Its imaging technique combines digital mammography with
low-and high-level X-rays to better identify cancer – leading better selection
of patients requiring biopsy.
Taking just seven to 10 minutes, "it can
really help reduce the time between detection and diagnosis," says Anne
LeGrand, senior vice president, healthcare at GE Healthcare. Aside from the
obvious benefit to nervous patients, that can help eliminate unnecessary return
visits and unneeded procedures – thus reducing costs. SenoBright is currently
510k clearance-pending at the FDA, and not yet available in the U.S., but it is
installed in 17 care centers across Europe and Asia, officials say.
As SenoBright aims at improving diagnosis,
another project, SenoCase, seeks to improve access. "Look at the
ultrasound business," says LeGrand. "Ultrasound went from tiny,
roll-around refrigerators to something that's the size of your laptop, or
smaller."
So it is with SenoBright – still in the
concept stage, with some "brilliant designers working on it" – which
is envisioned as a "highly portable" mammography device, says
LeGrand. The size of a suitcase, the concept could bring breast cancer
screenings to millions of women, where they live, worldwide, according to GE.
In the mean time, the company is piloting a
three-year partnership with Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer
technologies women in Wyoming, Saudi Arabia and China.
Through mobile mammography, digital
appointment bookings and IT-enabled education, GE is committed to transforming
the way care is delivered to these disparate underserved locations.
"We really feel it's something that needs
to be done now," says Kennedy of this massive and multifaceted initiative.
"GE is putting all our might behind this, to bring all our data together
and combine it with whatwe're doing on our challenge to find molecular
diagnostics and understand cancer pathways.”
"Cancer is at a real tipping point,"
she adds. "And we're looking to press the accelerator on innovation."
Mike Miliard, Managing Editor
Business & Investment Opportunities
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