GE Healthcare, Wayra UK to Support Startups to Develop AI Applications for Healthcare with New Accelerator Programme

The ‘Edison™ Accelerator’ Programme will give six healthcare start-ups access to world-class technical mentorship and business development support

London, UK – December 17, 2020 – GE Healthcare and Wayra UK announce today the launch of GE’s regional programme to support digital health start-ups to develop AI applications for healthcare and accelerate the path of new AI solutions for healthcare to market.

The Edison Accelerator will welcome 6 start-ups to its first cohort in early 2021 which will focus on applying artificial intelligence (AI) to medical imaging, operational AI in oncology and the use of AI to improve the patient experience.

This is GE Healthcare’s first such initiative in EMEA, following two successful programmes in China and India. GE is working in partnership with the pioneer of corporate innovation, Wayra UK.

The start-ups joining the programme will focus on three aspects of their proposition: innovation, adoption and integration. They will work towards getting their proof of concepts in place and if successful, they could gain access to GE Healthcare’s innovative Edison platform. The platform enables rapid and compliant design, development and deployment of various applications and will ultimately give the start-ups access to GE Healthcare’s clients.

The start-ups will be able to tap into GE Healthcare’s extensive global network including thousands of sales professionals and distribution partners in 160 countries. A network of mentors from domains including healthcare technology, business development and investment will support the start-ups throughout the programme.

The Edison Accelerator has been co-designed with healthcare providers to make it easier for digital health start-ups to bring new and innovative solutions to the market quickly and cost-effectively. A rich network of mentors from a variety of domains including healthcare technology, business development and investment will support the start-ups throughout the programme.

“The healthcare industry produces substantial amounts of data, and it is extremely difficult to bring this data together, convert it into meaningful insights and bring those insights to the point of care. The opportunities for healthcare with a truly intelligent connected digital enterprise are significant, but no one organisation can get there alone,” said Catherine Estrampes, President & CEO Europe, Middle East & Africa, GE Healthcare. “The future of innovation will be about working across silos and collaborating across the healthcare ecosystem, including start-ups, research centres, hospitals and clinicians. The Edison Accelerator brings together leading technology providers, developers and academic institutions under a single, connected ecosystem to create real impact from the bottom line to better patient outcomes.”

Bruno Moraes, Country Manager, Wayra UK commented: "The pace of innovation in MedTech is impressive and brings fundamental changes to our healthcare system with better outcomes and tangible impact on our lives. This is an area where we have been very active for several years and this partnership with GE Healthcare and the launching of the EMEA Edison Accelerator represents our strong belief on the impact innovation and digital transformation has in this sector. One of the differentiators of this programme is the strong connection with the industry and real clients through its entire duration. It is a great opportunity for the best scale-ups in EMEA to further develop and expand their solutions and we are looking forward to welcoming and working with them."

About the application process:

Start-ups and scale-ups based in Europe, the Middle East or Africa targeting the healthcare space will be able to apply for the first cohort in early 2021. Applications from start-ups leveraging technologies like big data and advanced analytics, AI and machine learning, image and time series processing and edge computing will have an advantage in their application.

The first cohort of the EMEA Edison Accelerator will focus on finding the best solutions that apply AI to medical imaging, operational AI in oncology and the usage of AI to improve the patient experience. Details about the open call will be published in early January 2021 on the Edison Accelerator and Wayra UK websites.

Important dates: