NEWS BRIEF
GE HealthCare addresses healthcare system needs and covers the full breadth of the patient care journey with the expansion of its Molecular Imaging portfolio
As molecular imaging procedures rapidly grow and expand throughout a variety of care areas, today’s key challenges are expected to become significant with volume growth. As a result, high-quality images, enhanced workflows, shorter scan times and scalable technologies are in high demand.
GE HealthCare is uniquely positioned to cover the full breadth of the patient care journey as a leading healthcare industry partner with solutions spanning from cyclotrons, chemistry synthesis, pharmaceutical diagnostics, PET/CT, PET/MR, SPECT/CT, and advanced oncology and digital solutions.
Delivering high quality images with Deep Learning for image processing and reconstruction
Over the years, the evolution of image quality in molecular imaging modalities such as positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) has addressed some of the historical challenges faced by clinicians to find the right balance between image quality, scan time and dose to the patient. These improvements in image quality are addressing many of today’s challenges, empowering clinicians with more accurate and detailed information, revolutionizing clinical practice, and profoundly helping impact patient outcomes.
To this end, GE HealthCare is proud to offer Precision DL for PET/CT, a recent addition to GE HealthCare’s growing Effortless Recon DL portfolio of deep learning-based solutions – which also includes AIR Recon DL for MR and PET/MR, Sonic DL for MR, TrueFidelity DL and True Enhance DLi for CT, and Helix for X-ray – to significantly improve image quality and help better inform clinical decision-making for improved patient outcomes.
Earlier this year, the company announced the U.S. FDA's 510(k) clearance of Precision DL, a revolutionary deep learning-based image processing software that provides the image quality performance benefits typically associated with hardware-based Time of Flight (ToF) reconstruction, including improved contrast-to-noise ratio, contrast recovery,ii and quantitative accuracy.iii The AI-based solution is available with Omni Legend, marking a new era of PET/CT performance to enable clinicians to decode coincidence events at exceptionally fine resolutions for informed diagnoses and help with treatment planning across care areas.
Enabling greater efficiency with streamlined workflows
Additionally, as the pace of change in healthcare continues to increase, health plan leaders cite driving clinical and operational efficiency as one of the top challenges they face todayiv.
Studying radiology departments’ entire workflows and identifying opportunities to simplify and streamline processes, GE HealthCare is expanding its Effortless Workflow beyond CT and MR to now include Molecular Imaging solutions for its Omni PET/CT platform and StarGuide SPECT/CT. The result is an offering that utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) and automates and can help expedite existing workflows – pre-scan to post-scan – by automating patient positioning and suggesting protocols and enabling time savings to help transform the entire Molecular Imaging experience and help maximize efficiency, accuracy, clarity and consistency across care pathways.
Effortless Workflow on the Omni PET/CT Platform is designed to help meet both clinicians’ and patients’ needs while enhancing image consistency as well as simplifying and optimizing time-consuming clinical and research procedures:
• Innovative AI-based Auto Positioning: Automatically detects an anatomical landmark by deep learning algorithms and allows minimizing positioning action into a single click operation, which is an 80% reduction of click numbers compared to the manual operation.v With this technology, it is a high possibility for it to reduce the time for patient positioning significantly compared to traditional manual operations
• MotionFree: Eliminates the need for a gating device with a seamlessly integrated digital respiratory motion management solution, which can help reduce patient set-up time and enable up to a 30% improvement in quantitative accuracy (SUV mean)vi and up to 67% improvement in volumetric accuracy of lesion sizevi
• Attenuation Correction Quality Control (ACQC): Simplifies and helps avoid misalignment between PET and CT images – which can introduce artifacts in the resulting images – by ensuring proper cardiac registration, correcting imaging mismatches without repeating the Cine protocol, and automatically re-process registration and reconstruction
Similarly, the solution for StarGuide SPECT/CT can help improve technologist efficiency as well as exposure to radiation from patients:
• Automated Patient Setup: Can help operators minimize their occupational radiation exposure due to time spent in close proximity to the patient
• Swift Plan: Works in concert with advanced automation robotics, intuitive bedside display, table ruler, and Optical Scout’s real-time mapping of the patient’s entire body habitus to enable adaptive, consistent and optimized camera setup and scanning that not only enables short setup, but also allows for safe and fast transitions between bed scanning position
Effortless Workflow collectively helps simplify time-consuming clinical and research tasks to help boost operational, clinical and research efficiency for the benefit of all.
Advancing Theranostics with scalable solutions
Connecting all phases of the Theranostics care pathway – from drug development through disease diagnosis and treatment monitoring, with scalable solutions, connectivity, and advanced imaging technologies – is critical to helping clinicians and health systems bring Theranostics treatments to more patients.
In recognition of this and growing demand for Theranostics – a form of precision care – GE HealthCare and BAMF Health recently announced a collaboration aimed at enabling BAMF Health to scale turnkey offerings inclusive of leading GE HealthCare technologies and services, including:
• PETtrace Solid Target Platform, which – in combination with its FASTlab 2 New Edition platform – can produce 100x the amount of Gallium compared to a generator for increased Theranostics capabilities and access in prostate cancer patient care; vii
• Omni Legend – the company’s fastest-ever-selling PET/CTviii – which already boasts more than two times the sensitivity of prior digital scannersix and high resolution, enabling faster scan times,x excellent image quality and impressive small lesion detectability;xi
• SIGNA PET/MR AIR, which pairs the industry’s most sensitive Time-of-Flight (ToF) PET detector with the company’s impressive AIR technology to help clinicians see some of the smallest lesions, research new tracers, and more accurately plan treatment paths for every patient;
• StarGuide SPECT/CT, which can help clinicians monitor therapies with a 12 CZT detector design that not only scans patients in 3D to provide more information to clinicians but is also optimized for certain Theranostics procedures, which in turn helps clinicians pinpoint the size, shape, and position of lesions with exceptional accuracy; and
• Digital solutions – including Precision DL, AIR Recon DL, Q.Thera AI – to help aid and better inform clinical decision-making for improved patient outcomes.
The goal of the collaboration is to ensure an agile go-to-market approach to enhance the adoption of Theranostics solutions in the United States. The arrangement supports a shared interest in better patient outcomes made possible through advanced diagnostics and radiotherapeutics.
For more information on GE Healthcare’s Molecular Imaging portfolio, visit gehealthcare.com.
Margaret Steinhafel
Global Communications Director, Molecular Imaging & Computed Tomography
margaret.steinhafel@gehealthcare.com
M: +1 608 381 8829
GE HealthCare is uniquely positioned to cover the full breadth of the patient care journey as a leading healthcare industry partner with solutions spanning from cyclotrons, chemistry synthesis, pharmaceutical diagnostics, PET/CT, PET/MR, SPECT/CT, and advanced oncology and digital solutions.
Delivering high quality images with Deep Learning for image processing and reconstruction
Over the years, the evolution of image quality in molecular imaging modalities such as positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) has addressed some of the historical challenges faced by clinicians to find the right balance between image quality, scan time and dose to the patient. These improvements in image quality are addressing many of today’s challenges, empowering clinicians with more accurate and detailed information, revolutionizing clinical practice, and profoundly helping impact patient outcomes.
To this end, GE HealthCare is proud to offer Precision DL for PET/CT, a recent addition to GE HealthCare’s growing Effortless Recon DL portfolio of deep learning-based solutions – which also includes AIR Recon DL for MR and PET/MR, Sonic DL for MR, TrueFidelity DL and True Enhance DLi for CT, and Helix for X-ray – to significantly improve image quality and help better inform clinical decision-making for improved patient outcomes.
Earlier this year, the company announced the U.S. FDA's 510(k) clearance of Precision DL, a revolutionary deep learning-based image processing software that provides the image quality performance benefits typically associated with hardware-based Time of Flight (ToF) reconstruction, including improved contrast-to-noise ratio, contrast recovery,ii and quantitative accuracy.iii The AI-based solution is available with Omni Legend, marking a new era of PET/CT performance to enable clinicians to decode coincidence events at exceptionally fine resolutions for informed diagnoses and help with treatment planning across care areas.
Enabling greater efficiency with streamlined workflows
Additionally, as the pace of change in healthcare continues to increase, health plan leaders cite driving clinical and operational efficiency as one of the top challenges they face todayiv.
Studying radiology departments’ entire workflows and identifying opportunities to simplify and streamline processes, GE HealthCare is expanding its Effortless Workflow beyond CT and MR to now include Molecular Imaging solutions for its Omni PET/CT platform and StarGuide SPECT/CT. The result is an offering that utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) and automates and can help expedite existing workflows – pre-scan to post-scan – by automating patient positioning and suggesting protocols and enabling time savings to help transform the entire Molecular Imaging experience and help maximize efficiency, accuracy, clarity and consistency across care pathways.
Effortless Workflow on the Omni PET/CT Platform is designed to help meet both clinicians’ and patients’ needs while enhancing image consistency as well as simplifying and optimizing time-consuming clinical and research procedures:
• Innovative AI-based Auto Positioning: Automatically detects an anatomical landmark by deep learning algorithms and allows minimizing positioning action into a single click operation, which is an 80% reduction of click numbers compared to the manual operation.v With this technology, it is a high possibility for it to reduce the time for patient positioning significantly compared to traditional manual operations
• MotionFree: Eliminates the need for a gating device with a seamlessly integrated digital respiratory motion management solution, which can help reduce patient set-up time and enable up to a 30% improvement in quantitative accuracy (SUV mean)vi and up to 67% improvement in volumetric accuracy of lesion sizevi
• Attenuation Correction Quality Control (ACQC): Simplifies and helps avoid misalignment between PET and CT images – which can introduce artifacts in the resulting images – by ensuring proper cardiac registration, correcting imaging mismatches without repeating the Cine protocol, and automatically re-process registration and reconstruction
Similarly, the solution for StarGuide SPECT/CT can help improve technologist efficiency as well as exposure to radiation from patients:
• Automated Patient Setup: Can help operators minimize their occupational radiation exposure due to time spent in close proximity to the patient
• Swift Plan: Works in concert with advanced automation robotics, intuitive bedside display, table ruler, and Optical Scout’s real-time mapping of the patient’s entire body habitus to enable adaptive, consistent and optimized camera setup and scanning that not only enables short setup, but also allows for safe and fast transitions between bed scanning position
Effortless Workflow collectively helps simplify time-consuming clinical and research tasks to help boost operational, clinical and research efficiency for the benefit of all.
Advancing Theranostics with scalable solutions
Connecting all phases of the Theranostics care pathway – from drug development through disease diagnosis and treatment monitoring, with scalable solutions, connectivity, and advanced imaging technologies – is critical to helping clinicians and health systems bring Theranostics treatments to more patients.
In recognition of this and growing demand for Theranostics – a form of precision care – GE HealthCare and BAMF Health recently announced a collaboration aimed at enabling BAMF Health to scale turnkey offerings inclusive of leading GE HealthCare technologies and services, including:
• PETtrace Solid Target Platform, which – in combination with its FASTlab 2 New Edition platform – can produce 100x the amount of Gallium compared to a generator for increased Theranostics capabilities and access in prostate cancer patient care; vii
• Omni Legend – the company’s fastest-ever-selling PET/CTviii – which already boasts more than two times the sensitivity of prior digital scannersix and high resolution, enabling faster scan times,x excellent image quality and impressive small lesion detectability;xi
• SIGNA PET/MR AIR, which pairs the industry’s most sensitive Time-of-Flight (ToF) PET detector with the company’s impressive AIR technology to help clinicians see some of the smallest lesions, research new tracers, and more accurately plan treatment paths for every patient;
• StarGuide SPECT/CT, which can help clinicians monitor therapies with a 12 CZT detector design that not only scans patients in 3D to provide more information to clinicians but is also optimized for certain Theranostics procedures, which in turn helps clinicians pinpoint the size, shape, and position of lesions with exceptional accuracy; and
• Digital solutions – including Precision DL, AIR Recon DL, Q.Thera AI – to help aid and better inform clinical decision-making for improved patient outcomes.
The goal of the collaboration is to ensure an agile go-to-market approach to enhance the adoption of Theranostics solutions in the United States. The arrangement supports a shared interest in better patient outcomes made possible through advanced diagnostics and radiotherapeutics.
For more information on GE Healthcare’s Molecular Imaging portfolio, visit gehealthcare.com.
Margaret Steinhafel
Global Communications Director, Molecular Imaging & Computed Tomography
margaret.steinhafel@gehealthcare.com
M: +1 608 381 8829
i True Enhance DL is 510(k) pending in the U.S. FDA. Not available for sale in the United States.
ii Precision DL with Omni Legend 32cm data improves Contrast Recovery (CR) by 11% on average and Contrast-to-Noise Ratio (CNR) by average of 23% as compared to non-ToF reconstruction. CR and CNR demonstrated using clinical data with inserted lesions of known size, location, and contrast. Using data from Omni Legend 32 cm, CR and CNR were measured using High Precision DL and QCHD.
iii Precision DL with Omni Legend 32cm improves feature quantitation accuracy by 14% as compared to Discovery MI with ToF reconstruction, at comparable noise level. Quantitation accuracy demonstrated using clinical data with inserted lesions of known size, location, and contrast (ground truth). Feature SUVmean from Omni Legend 32 cm with High Precision DL compared to SUVmean from Discovery MI 25 cm with QCFX.
iv “HealthEdge Survey Highlights Growth Opportunities and Challenges for Health Plan Leaders.” HealthEdge. 9 April 2022. https://www.healthedge.com/about-us/news-events/press-releases/healthedge-survey-highlights-growth-opportunities-and-challenges-for-health-plan-leaders
vSingle click operation may reduce the time for patient positioning significantly compared to traditional manual operations.
viCompared to non‐processed (STATIC, no motion‐correction) data. As demonstrated in phantom testing using a typical and fast respiratory model and OSEM reconstruction.
viiSvedjehed et al. “Demystifying solid targets: Simple and rapid distribution-scale production of [68Ga]GaCl3 and [68Ga]Ga-PSMA-11.” Nuclear Medicine and Biology. Volumes 104–105, January–February 2022, Pages 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucmedbio.2021.10.002
viiiBased on orders data of GE HealthCare PET/CT systems since 2010.
ixOmni Legend 32 cm has up to 2.2 increase in system sensitivity as compared to Discovery MI 25 cm. Measurement follows NEMA NU 2-2018.
xUp to 53% reduction of PET scan time on Omni Legend 32 cm compared to Discovery MI 25 cm, as demonstrated in phantom testing.
xiOmni Legend 32 cm increases small lesion detectability 16% on average and up to 20%, as compared to Discovery MI 25 cm with matched scan time/injected dose, as demonstrated in phantom testing using a model observer with 4 mm lesions; average of different reconstruction methods.
ii Precision DL with Omni Legend 32cm data improves Contrast Recovery (CR) by 11% on average and Contrast-to-Noise Ratio (CNR) by average of 23% as compared to non-ToF reconstruction. CR and CNR demonstrated using clinical data with inserted lesions of known size, location, and contrast. Using data from Omni Legend 32 cm, CR and CNR were measured using High Precision DL and QCHD.
iii Precision DL with Omni Legend 32cm improves feature quantitation accuracy by 14% as compared to Discovery MI with ToF reconstruction, at comparable noise level. Quantitation accuracy demonstrated using clinical data with inserted lesions of known size, location, and contrast (ground truth). Feature SUVmean from Omni Legend 32 cm with High Precision DL compared to SUVmean from Discovery MI 25 cm with QCFX.
iv “HealthEdge Survey Highlights Growth Opportunities and Challenges for Health Plan Leaders.” HealthEdge. 9 April 2022. https://www.healthedge.com/about-us/news-events/press-releases/healthedge-survey-highlights-growth-opportunities-and-challenges-for-health-plan-leaders
vSingle click operation may reduce the time for patient positioning significantly compared to traditional manual operations.
viCompared to non‐processed (STATIC, no motion‐correction) data. As demonstrated in phantom testing using a typical and fast respiratory model and OSEM reconstruction.
viiSvedjehed et al. “Demystifying solid targets: Simple and rapid distribution-scale production of [68Ga]GaCl3 and [68Ga]Ga-PSMA-11.” Nuclear Medicine and Biology. Volumes 104–105, January–February 2022, Pages 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucmedbio.2021.10.002
viiiBased on orders data of GE HealthCare PET/CT systems since 2010.
ixOmni Legend 32 cm has up to 2.2 increase in system sensitivity as compared to Discovery MI 25 cm. Measurement follows NEMA NU 2-2018.
xUp to 53% reduction of PET scan time on Omni Legend 32 cm compared to Discovery MI 25 cm, as demonstrated in phantom testing.
xiOmni Legend 32 cm increases small lesion detectability 16% on average and up to 20%, as compared to Discovery MI 25 cm with matched scan time/injected dose, as demonstrated in phantom testing using a model observer with 4 mm lesions; average of different reconstruction methods.