RSNA News: GE Invests in 3D Printing, Robotic Surgery, and Virtual Patient Monitoring

GE Healthcare announced investments in and collaborations with Formlabs, CMR Surgical Ltd., and Decisio Health, companies specializing in 3D printing, surgical robotics and virtual care monitoring respectively. When paired with GE Healthcare’s diagnostic expertise and global scale, these three novel healthcare technologies will help expand clinical capabilities and enable more effective diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of patients.

“Healthcare’s next chapter will be written in part by emerging technologies like 3D printing, robotic surgery and virtual patient monitoring,” said Kieran Murphy, president and CEO of GE Healthcare. “That’s why we’re putting GE Healthcare’s innovative engine and resources behind collaborations with these exciting, next generation companies – to help change the way clinicians work and enable more precise patient care.”
 
GE Healthcare is collaborating with Formlabs, a Massachusetts-based manufacturer of advanced, affordable 3D-printers that can help clinicians easily and quickly print anatomical models at the point of care. These tangible models accurately visualize patient anatomy and disease for improved communication within the medical team, better hands-on case-based teaching models and enhanced patient education. Radiologists can use GE Healthcare’s Advantage Workstation to prepare 3D CT or MRI data to assist in diagnosis and procedure planning, then export using 3D Suite in a form that is ready for 3D printing on Formlabs systems or viewable in Virtual or Augmented Reality in seconds. 3D printed models can help reduce patient anxiety, enhance physician training and reduce procedure time in the operating room by allowing for more comprehensive planning.
 
GE Healthcare recently participated as a minority investor in a $240 million funding round for CMR Surgical Ltd., the U.K.-based developer of a surgical robotic system called Versius*. A small, modular and cost-effective surgical robotic system, Versius aims to enhance and expand the use of minimal access surgery, with the goal of lessening trauma and speeding up recovery times for patients. Combined with GE Healthcare’s portfolio of surgical imaging systems and AI tools, CMR Surgical’s Versius solution could change the way surgeries are performed worldwide.
 
“GE Healthcare shares CMR Surgical’s transformative vision of making minimal access surgery safe, effective and available to all,” stated Gustavo Perez-Fernandez, president and CEO for GE Healthcare’s Image Guided Therapies business. “We see the Versius surgical robotic system becoming a key ‘guiding companion’ for surgeons alongside GE Healthcare’s advanced, high-quality imaging and AI capabilities.”
 
GE Healthcare is investing in Decisio Health, a Houston, Texas-based software company that specializes in clinical surveillance, to expand into the virtual care space and revolutionize patient monitoring. Decisio’s solutions provide a real-time, consolidated view of patients from multiple systems across a care area, hospital or an entire network. Combining GE Healthcare’s digital clinical platforms with Decisio’s visualization software, clinical teams will be able to merge latent and retrospective data (e.g. EMR) and real-time patient data (e.g. blood pressure and lactic levels) to help improve clinical decision-making and positively impact patient care.
 
Combined, these investments highlight the promise of cross-industry collaboration to creatively meet patient and clinician needs in the new era of healthcare. GE Healthcare also announced more than 30 new imaging technologies and solutions, and a unique digital developer platform called the Edison Developer Program, at #RSNA19.
 
*Versius is an investigational device. It is not commercially available in the United States, nor is it cleared by the FDA.