SAN FRANCISCO—GE HealthCare is launching a new imaging research collaboration with the University of California, San Francisco, aimed at improving the diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases and cancer.
The project will launch a Care Innovation Hub within UCSF’s Department of Radiology & Biomedical Imaging, to serve as a home that brings together the university’s oncology and brain research and GE HealthCare’s product development efforts.
The ultimate goal is to build automated imaging methods, including MRI techniques, that can be quickly tailored for different patients based on their needs, as well as better ways to understand neural activity.
“Our collaboration with GE HealthCare brings a practical focus on addressing well-defined clinical objectives,” Sharmila Majumdar, research vice chair of UCSF’s imaging department, said in a statement. “Together, we’re accelerating innovation in ways that will improve access to care and outcomes across healthcare settings.”
Individual projects in the partnership, which builds on a decades-long history between the two, also include exploring the links between white matter injuries, vascular disease and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as ways to predict the effectiveness of different treatments.
And in precision cancer therapy, researchers will work on approaches for monitoring and quantifying patient responses to newly emerging radiopharmaceuticals, including alpha-particle emitters. The work will also cover quantitative imaging for cardiac and musculoskeletal disease, and developing methods for remote scanning.
“We’re honored to collaborate with UCSF on this important work, which has the potential to significantly improve patient outcomes and address life-threatening diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and prostate cancer worldwide,” said Erin Angel, GE HealthCare’s global VP for research and scientific affairs. “By combining our strengths, we’re taking steps toward solutions that meet real clinical needs.”