GE HealthCare acquisition highlights growing role of AI in medical imaging
GE HealthCare has announced today the acquisition of Caption Health, an artificial intelligence (AI) healthcare company focused on echocardiograms. The deal has significant read-across for London-listed (), itself a key AI partner of GE Healthcare across its obstetrics and gynaecology ultrasound range.
In a similar way to Intelligent Ultrasound's technology, Caption Health’s AI technology works to take healthcare workers through the process of securing clear images from cardiac ultrasound scans, regardless of the level of training that the clinician has received. As a result, treatment teams can progress with greater confidence in their diagnosis, ultimately improving early detection and avoiding ensuing health complications.
Additionally, as GE HealthCare acquires Caption Health, the AI technology will first be embedded into GE HealthCare’s point-of-care and hand-held imaging devices. Clinicians will be able to perform scans on patients outside of a healthcare setting, offering greater flexibility, as well as as paramedics being able to use ultrasound scanners at the scene of an accident.
GE stated that "guiding ultrasound users during examinations with the help of AI is of growing importance", and the acquisition of Caption Health will help to achieve better patient outcomes by improving early disease detection when conducting ultrasound scans.
Caption Health’s AI ultrasound technology is vital for early disease detection for heart failure. Due to the lack of trained clinicians in this field, heart disease is often detected late, and severe health complications can arise as a result. Because healthcare workers of varying experience can perform ultrasounds assisted with Caption Health’s AI technology, clinicians are able to subsequently deliver potentially lifesaving care.
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GE HealthCare’s acquisition of Caption Health demonstrates the growing significance of AI in ultrasound scanning procedures. In 2020, Intelligent Ultrasound, an AI-based ultrasound software and simulation company, entered into partnership with GE to provide software for their Women’s Health ultrasound system Voluson SWIFT. The software, ScanNav Assist, is used to act like a scanning assistant comparing images to standard criteria.
Additionally, Intelligent Ultrasound announced in January 2022 that they had signed an extension to their agreement with GE HealthCare, utilising the software in a new segment of automated ultrasound image analysis, outside of the original agreement. The extension of the agreement demonstrates the rapid growth of the medical imaging AI market, estimated at $1.7 billion in 2022 and set to grow to $20.9 billion by 2030, with a registered CAGR of 36.87% in the forecasted period.
The success of GE HealthCare and Intelligent Ultrasounds’ partnership bodes well for future integration of software into the medtech giant's imaging equipment. On top of this, GE Healthcare’s recent acquisition of Caption Health sets a promising precedent for Intelligent Ultrasound and the future of its relationship with GE HealthCare.
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