November 14, 2023 — To help provide clinicians a comprehensive workflow, GE HealthCare is working towards the seamless integration of its ‘AW Family’ Advanced Visualization applications with Sectra’s enterprise imaging diagnostic application for radiology.[i] Together, the two companies aim to enable smooth workflows and seamless access to next-generation, advanced visualization applications.
With cardiology being one of the most demanding clinical workflow environments, this integration would begin with a focus on the cardiology care pathway and GE HealthCare’s CardIQ Suite[ii], a workflow which leverages Deep Learning to automatically identify the presence and location of coronary artery calcifications and provide a total and per territory score within seconds of loading. When combined with Sectra’s diagnostic application, clinicians could enhance CardIQ Suite’s efficiency – potentially enabling faster workflows, additional time savings, increased productivity, and a reduced workload.
“We designed our AW Advanced Visualization family to be an open ecosystem and enable technology integrations –this one with Sectra is a great example,” explains Jan Makela, President & CEO, Imaging, GE HealthCare. “This potential integration aims to increase accessibility and functionality – not only to help clinicians save time and increase productivity, but also streamlining the cardiology care pathway by easing the transition between applications – or even workstations – and reducing total number of clicks.”
As the field of radiology continues to evolve with increased sub specialization, the demand for advanced diagnostic tools has grown exponentially. Current data shows that higher workloads have caused burnout rates among radiologists to rise.[iii] To address this challenge, healthcare systems are looking for streamlined diagnostics and seamlessly integrated essential tools into their workflow.
Leveraging Sectra’s exceptional integration capabilities and GE HealthCare’s commitment to open integration, radiologists could access the necessary tools within a single application, potentially reducing the steps and pressures they regularly face.
“As radiology becomes increasingly specialized, the demand on radiologists intensifies and many more are experiencing burnout,” says Torbjörn Kronander, President and CEO of Sectra. “Combating these challenges and addressing the shortage in radiology is our top priority as a diagnostic software company – simplifying daily tasks and ensuring instant access to crucial tools.”
Sectra’s enterprise imaging diagnostic application for radiology is part of its enterprise imaging software subscription. It enables a unified strategy for all imaging needs while lowering operational costs. The scalable and modular solution allows healthcare providers to grow across clinical specialties and enterprises.
CardIQ Suite, part of the AW Family application portfolio, is an integrated suite of CT cardiac post-processing tools built for automation and workflow efficiency. The AI-enabled application is intended to help with consistency, accurate labeling, and correct identification of the presence of coronary artery classifications.
The potential integration between these two companies demonstrates how GE HealthCare is partnering to improve customers’ workflows and experience when accessing its AW Family Advanced Visualization applications. While cardiology is the current focus, the hope for the future is improved accessibility to GE HealthCare’s many other AW Family applications, which span modalities and care areas.
This integration is made possible by GE HealthCare’s commitment to creating a best-in-class, open ecosystem that enables robust, wing-to-wing solutions for the benefit of global healthcare systems, clinicians and their patients. The company continues to focus on broadening its capabilities with new integrations, accelerating workflows through enabling seamless interoperability between systems, and empowering clinicians with the ability to choose the best technologies for their patients through an open, vendor-agnostic ecosystem.
References:
[i] Integrated technology in development that represents ongoing research and development efforts. Not for sale. Not commercially available.
[ii] CardIQ Suite is a part of GE HealthCare’s AW Advanced Visualization family of applications
[iii] Reimaging Better Health 2023. GE HealthCare. June 2023. https://www.gehealthcare.com/insights/reimagining-better-health
For more information: www.gehealthcare.com, www.sectra.com
April 25, 2024 
