GE shows additions to PET/CT platform, new Evolution software, works-in-progress, and more at SNM
GE Healthcare showed a wide array of new products, upgrades, works-in-progress, and touted install base numbers related to the nuclear medicine area at last week's 52nd Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM) annual meeting in Toronto, Canada.
Over 500 GE Discovery PET/CT systems have been installed at medical facilities worldwide, including seven of the top ten cancer centers in the U.S. Now, GEHC is introducing the Discovery STE which provides physicians with a large range of clinical capabilities and truly hybrid imaging flexibility, to allow them to diagnose patients with cancer, heart disease, and neurological conditions earlier and better and to monitor a patient's course of treatment, GEHC said.
The DiscoverySTE ('E' referring to elite clinical capabilities) adds two additional functionalities to the company's modular PET/CT platform, according to Steven Henn, Americas Functional Imaging Marketing Leader. DiscoverySTE now includes the Discovery Dimension Console which is fully integrated to optimize PET/CT workflow, as well as an elite clinical performance configuration which is an enhanced detector design that improves resolution of the system without compromising sensitivity which is a key for oncology application, Henn said.
GEHC also celebrated at SNM the shipment of its 500th Infinia Nuclear Medicine Camera, just two years after its initial launch. Infinia is an all-purpose SPECT/ CT system.
On a related note, the company also gave SNM attendees a look at the Infinia Hawkeye 4 which is a work-in-progress SPECT/CT system.
"This system is being showcased as our chief weapon for oncology and cardiology," said Gina Larkin, Marketing Manager, Nuclear Medicine Products. The Infinia Hawkeye 4 is being designed to offer increased functionality along with improvements in speed, resolution and coverage, Larkin added.
GEHC also introduced Evolution for Bone at SNM, a new suite of reconstruction tools for the company's Infinia with Xeleris functional imaging workstation, used for resolution recovery in SPECT/CT bone imaging that will improve image quality, diagnostic confidence, productivity, and patient comfort. Evolution is designed to provide clinicians with excellent image clarity and up to a 50 percent reduction in imaging time, GEHC said.
Also at SNM, GEHC introduced an expansion to the company's existing line of PET radiopharmacy equipment used to produce radiotracers required in PET imaging. The new PETtrace10 will now offer PET radiopharmaceutical users increased capacity and reliability for producing PET radioisotopes.
"[PETtrace10 is] the highest yield cyclotron in the world today," said Alexander Y. Tokman, General Manager, Global Molecular Imaging and Radiopharmacy. "The primary advantage to end users is that you can produce more radioactive isotopes in the shortest amount of time."
Finally, GE Healthcare announced at SNM a new five-year partnership with the Department of Radiology at Stanford University School of Medicine to develop novel molecular imaging technologies aimed at enabling clinicians to make earlier diagnoses and to better monitor therapies beyond what is possible with traditional imaging technologies.
The collaboration, which will be headquartered at Stanford, brings together clinicians, biologists, chemists and medical physicists from both organizations to create innovative imaging technologies and molecular probes. Together, GE and Stanford researchers will work to identify and develop biomarkers of disease states, design targeted molecular imaging probes, and develop diagnostic imaging and in-vitro diagnostics technologies, GEHC said.
Over 500 GE Discovery PET/CT systems have been installed at medical facilities worldwide, including seven of the top ten cancer centers in the U.S. Now, GEHC is introducing the Discovery STE which provides physicians with a large range of clinical capabilities and truly hybrid imaging flexibility, to allow them to diagnose patients with cancer, heart disease, and neurological conditions earlier and better and to monitor a patient's course of treatment, GEHC said.
The DiscoverySTE ('E' referring to elite clinical capabilities) adds two additional functionalities to the company's modular PET/CT platform, according to Steven Henn, Americas Functional Imaging Marketing Leader. DiscoverySTE now includes the Discovery Dimension Console which is fully integrated to optimize PET/CT workflow, as well as an elite clinical performance configuration which is an enhanced detector design that improves resolution of the system without compromising sensitivity which is a key for oncology application, Henn said.
GEHC also celebrated at SNM the shipment of its 500th Infinia Nuclear Medicine Camera, just two years after its initial launch. Infinia is an all-purpose SPECT/ CT system.
On a related note, the company also gave SNM attendees a look at the Infinia Hawkeye 4 which is a work-in-progress SPECT/CT system.
"This system is being showcased as our chief weapon for oncology and cardiology," said Gina Larkin, Marketing Manager, Nuclear Medicine Products. The Infinia Hawkeye 4 is being designed to offer increased functionality along with improvements in speed, resolution and coverage, Larkin added.
GEHC also introduced Evolution for Bone at SNM, a new suite of reconstruction tools for the company's Infinia with Xeleris functional imaging workstation, used for resolution recovery in SPECT/CT bone imaging that will improve image quality, diagnostic confidence, productivity, and patient comfort. Evolution is designed to provide clinicians with excellent image clarity and up to a 50 percent reduction in imaging time, GEHC said.
Also at SNM, GEHC introduced an expansion to the company's existing line of PET radiopharmacy equipment used to produce radiotracers required in PET imaging. The new PETtrace10 will now offer PET radiopharmaceutical users increased capacity and reliability for producing PET radioisotopes.
"[PETtrace10 is] the highest yield cyclotron in the world today," said Alexander Y. Tokman, General Manager, Global Molecular Imaging and Radiopharmacy. "The primary advantage to end users is that you can produce more radioactive isotopes in the shortest amount of time."
Finally, GE Healthcare announced at SNM a new five-year partnership with the Department of Radiology at Stanford University School of Medicine to develop novel molecular imaging technologies aimed at enabling clinicians to make earlier diagnoses and to better monitor therapies beyond what is possible with traditional imaging technologies.
The collaboration, which will be headquartered at Stanford, brings together clinicians, biologists, chemists and medical physicists from both organizations to create innovative imaging technologies and molecular probes. Together, GE and Stanford researchers will work to identify and develop biomarkers of disease states, design targeted molecular imaging probes, and develop diagnostic imaging and in-vitro diagnostics technologies, GEHC said.