GE Healthcare Introduces Edison HealthLink

GE Healthcare introduced Edison HealthLink, new edge computing technology designed specifically for the needs of healthcare providers, that allows clinicians to collect, analyze and act upon critical data closer to its source. With 10 applications already available through Edison HealthLink—including TrueFidelity image reconstruction, Mural Virtual Care and CT Smart Subscription—the solution gives healthcare providers another entry point into the Edison ecosystem.
 
While COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of cloud technology, analyzing data from a distance can pose various risks to operational efficiency and patient care. Concerns around bandwidth, network and latency challenges remain when a matter of seconds could determine the outcome for a patient. For example, time is critical when diagnosing and treating stroke—around 2 million brain cells die every minute¹ until blood flow is restored, increasing the risk of permanent damage. Running advanced post-processing software at the edge to evaluate brain scans allows clinicians to analyze and act upon critical data without sending it to the cloud, enabling rapid decision making.
 
“COVID-19 has accelerated industry-wide trends with implications for the future of care delivery. It’s time to apply these trends and use them to modernize the current health system infrastructure,” said Amit Phadnis, Chief Digital Officer, GE Healthcare. “As more care delivery becomes virtual and as more healthcare data moves to the cloud, technologies like Edison HealthLink provide a bridge, allowing devices to operate on premise, at the edge and in the cloud.”
 
By operating medical devices that connect to Edison HealthLink, health systems can continually receive advanced software updates without requiring new equipment—essentially extending the life of existing assets.
 
Built using GE’s deep healthcare domain expertise, Edison HealthLink runs the Edison Health Services software stack, which provides a set of healthcare-specific services—including HIPAA-compliant data aggregation, connectivity, advanced visualization, AI and non-AI algorithm orchestration—that developers can leverage to build and deploy clinical applications and workflows. These capabilities, along with other development tools, can serve as the delivery platform for third-party developers with edge applications for the healthcare industry. The Edison Health Service software stack can be deployed at the edge, on premise and in the cloud.
 
This Edison HealthLink news marks another milestone for GE Healthcare’s Edison ecosystem, which helps GE Healthcare and select strategic partners design, develop, manage, secure and distribute applications and algorithms quickly. Healthcare applications deployed on Edison HealthLink are part of GE Healthcare’s efforts to provide clinicians with tools that help them aggregate data, apply AI and analytics to that data and uncover insights—empowering clinicians to achieve better patient outcomes, gain efficiency and reduce errors.

Reference
¹ University of Michigan Health System. “After a stroke, every minute counts: New national guide for care.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 28 February 2013.