"We are committed to improving healthcare in Third World countries," GE Healthcare International research division general manager Dr. Bengt Nielsen told "Globes". He is due to arrive in Israel tomorrow to attend a conference and visit the company's current and potential partners.
"We want to cut treatment costs by 15%, improve quality by 15%, and improve access by 15%" says Nielsen. "Within five years, we'll buy or develop 100 new technologies and methodologies to achieve this target. We've already picked 45 technologies and methodologies and allocated $6 billion to them."
GE Healthcare is actively seeking small, mobile, and more accurate imaging devices. Neilsen says, "Within a few years, we'll see imaging devices the size of cellphones, which doctors will carry everywhere, instead of a stethoscope."
During his visit to Israel, Neilsen will look at the MRI device developed by researchers at Tel Aviv University in collaboration with GE Healthcare and the EU. "We'll create particles that the MRI can identify. For each particle, we'll lay a drug that can be released at a predetermined time. When we see the drug accumulating in the right place, such as in a tumor, we'll release it," he explains.
Neilsen praises the innovative technologies of Israel's start-ups. "Most innovation in the world comes in increments, one built on top of the other. Israel has an extraordinary number of breakthrough innovations, quantum leap innovations. This is mainly because of your universities, which encourage creative thinking."
Nielsen will also participate in the 23rd Conference of the Society for Medical Innovation and Technology (SMIT) on September 13-16 in Tel Aviv. He will visit GE Healthcare's R&D center, which employs hundreds of people, and its partners as well as potential partners. GE Healthcare is a partner in InSightec Image Guided Treatment Ltd., and has acquired Versamed Medical Systems, and the nuclear division of Orbotech Ltd. (Nasdaq: ORBK). The company also has cooperation agreements with medical devices companies Deep Breeze Inc., WideMed Ltd. (TASE:WDMD), and Arineta Ltd., as well as several agreements with cleantech companies.
GE Healthcare Israel was founded in 1998 through acquiring the activities of medical systems companies including Elbit Medical Technologies Ltd's (TASE:EMTC) Ultrasound Division and Elscint’s NM and MRI Divisions.
GE Healthcare's scours the world for innovative technologies. "80% of our innovation comes from outside," says Nielsen. While many corporations acquire innovations from universities, hospitals, and start-ups, an 80% acquisition rate is unusual. "Despite the large proportion of innovation that we bring from outside, we're also known for our innovative in-house operations."
This collaboration - the healthcare ecosystem - is one of the keywords at healthcare conferences around the world in the past couple of years. Healthcare organizations believe that it is the only way to cut treatment costs without which healthcare systems will collapse.
"We want to change the healthcare world," declares Nielsen unequivocally. "We know that this change cannot come from one company, hospital, or health insurer, or even one government, but only by everyone working together in an integrated way.
"Take Alzheimer's diagnosis for example. GE was not very active in the area in the past, because diagnosis was based on questionnaires and treatment was based solely medicine, and GE is a diagnostics company. Many studies now suggest using MRI scans to diagnose Alzheimers, and a huge market has been opened to us. To properly develop such a system, it is necessary to understand the diagnosis process and the effect of the treatment choice and progression of the disease over time.
"As part of this process, we can help personalize treatment, adapt it to each patient's condition. Such a process has far-reaching implications for the healthcare system. Geriatrics and the treatment of chronic illnesses are among the heaviest burdens on the healthcare system," Nielsen concludes.
Robot, save us
Neilsen says that imaging systems for the operating theater is one of GE Healthcare's targets. "Today, imaging is usually made before surgery. We want to bring as much imaging into the operating theater as possible, because studies show a correlation between surgical procedures with more imaging increases the chances of people being cured without complications."
If the concept is realized in full, by 2030, there will be more robots than doctors in operating theaters. This will not render doctors, nurses, and their assistants jobless: they will continue to diagnose, plan procedures by computer, monitor developments, and intervene when the unexpected happens - but the robot will make the incision. This technology will enable remote surgical procedures, and possibly simultaneous procedures under the supervision of one surgeon, which could dramatically save resources.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 13, 2011
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2011