GE healthcare showcase their new innovations at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging’s (SNMMI) 2021 summer conference

US – GE Healthcare showcased a new molecular imaging products and solutions as well as new opportunities to expand access to radioactive tracers and other pharmaceutical imaging agents during the SNMMI 2021 summer conference.

This increase in access to the latest and most innovative precision diagnostics and radiopharmaceuticals, particularly with recent FDA clearances of critical new therapies, can provide clinicians unique opportunities to make personalized care decisions and treatment response assessments that may help improve patient outcomes.

As an example, GE Healthcare is doubling its U.S. distribution footprint of Vizamyl (flutemetamol F18) following the FDA’s recent approval of Aduhelm™ (aducanumab), the first approved treatment for the reduction of beta-amyloid plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

This will significantly expand the availability of Vizamyl, used to diagnose the presence and density of beta-amyloid plaques in patients with suspected Alzheimer’s disease or other causes of cognitive decline, to imaging centers and clinicians.

GE Healthcare will also launch education and awareness initiatives for patients and their families, clinicians, payers, and policymakers about the role amyloid imaging has in the diagnosis and monitoring of Alzheimer’s disease. 

“For years we’ve been talking about precision health and theranostics as ‘the future of healthcare.’ Now, we are seeing it become a reality,” says Jean Luc Procaccini, President & CEO, Molecular Imaging & Computed Tomography, GE Healthcare. “Fortunately, GE Healthcare is ready, already having spent years developing cutting-edge products with precision health and theranostics in mind. From cyclotrons and chemistry synthesis to imaging solutions to radioisotopes and pharmaceutical diagnostics, we are proud to offer the tools and information needed by clinicians to make more personalized care recommendations. Afterall, healthcare is personal – our treatments should be too.”

As a result of this “one-size-fits-all” approach, treatments can be very successful for some, but not for others.

Precision healthcare or personalized medicine, on the other hand, is an innovative approach that uses one’s personal information and biomarkers; particularly genes, environments, and lifestyles; to help tailor treatment recommendations for individual patients [1].

This approach to healthcare has in turn given rise to theranostics, a new field of medicine that allows for targeted therapies because of clinically precise diagnostic tests.

To help clinicians more easily gather and interpret the vast amount of patient data needed to make more personalized care recommendations, GE Healthcare introduced a series of new products and AI-powered solutions to the market and help expand access to precision health resources.

Nuclear Medicine (SPECT/CT)

Recently cleared by the FDA, GE Healthcare’s next-generation Star Guide SPECT/CT system that uses the latest digital technologies to help clinicians improve patient outcomes in bone procedures, cardiology, neurology, oncology, and other medical specialties.

The system’s cutting edge 12 CZT Digital Focus Detectors not only scan patients in 3D to provide more information to clinicians but they are also optimized for theranostic procedures.

PET/CT

GE Healthcare’s Discovery of MI Gen 2 is the only PET/CT system that brings together the highest sensitivity of digital detection with the company’s industry-first CT image reconstruction technology: Deep Learning Image Reconstruction for TrueFidelity CT Images.

Generated using a dedicated deep neural network, TrueFidelity CT Images have the potential to improve reading confidence in a wide range of clinical applications such as head, whole body and cardiovascular, for patients of all ages.

Pharmaceutical Diagnostics & PET Tracers

GE healthcare acquired Zionexa, a leading innovator of in-vivo oncology and neurology biomarkers that help enable more personalized healthcare, in May.

GE Healthcare aims to develop and bring to market Zionexa’s pipeline biomarkers, as well as the recently FDA-approved PET imaging agent, Cerianna (fluoroestradiol F-18), which is used as an adjunct to biopsy for the detection of estrogen receptor positive lesions to help inform treatment selection for patients with recurrent or metastatic breast cancer.