GE Healthcare Announces Global Partnership to Tackle Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease

In a Monday announcement, GE Healthcare revealed it has joined forces with Australia-based integrated cancer care provider GenesisCare to address cancer and cardiovascular disease – the two biggest healthcare problems worldwide.

As part of the $130-million deal, GE will provide and service its latest CT, MRI, PET/CT, SPECT, digital mammography, and ultrasound equipment to GenesisCare’s more than 440 cancer care and cardiovascular disease treatment centers across the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Australia.

This partnership, according to a press statement, fuses GenesisCare’s screening services for cancer and cardiac disease, diagnosis, and treatments, with GE’s imaging technologies, digital infrastructure, oncology and cardiology solutions, data analytics, and clinical decision support tools. It is part of GenesisCare’s three-year plan to invest $300 million in the United States.

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“Together with GenesisCare, we aim to offer patients greater access to leading medical technologies, more precise intervention and individualized treatment leading to a new standard of personalized healthcare,” said Kieran Murphy, GE Healthcare president and chief executive officer. “We hope that combining GenesisCare’s clinical experience with GE Healthcare’s medical diagnostic innovation and AI capabilities will positively impact millions of cancer and cardiac patients.”

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death globally, and cases are expected to balloon by more than 60 percent in the next two decades. Cancer follows closely behind as the second leading cause of mortality. By providing these up-to-date modalities, company officials said, GE will be able to augment the patient’s treatment journey through GenesisCare, which recently acquired U.S. integrated cancer care provider 21st Century Oncology, from initial screening and diagnosis to therapy guidance with minimally invasive treatment to progress monitoring.

This collaboration comes at a particularly vital time, said Dan Collins, GenesisCare founder and global chief executive officer. During the pandemic, he said, there needs to be more investment and access for doctors and patients – not less.

“Cancer and heart disease haven’t stopped during this pandemic,” he said, “and high-quality imaging and diagnosis will be in greater demand than ever as many people begin to feel more comfortable accessing screening services.”

By working together, he said, patients in more than 290 facilities nationwide will receive accelerated access to the most state-of-the-art oncology treatments. In addition, theses companies plan to separately explore further partnerships on research activities aimed at improving clinical care and patient outcomes worldwide through technology, education, care pathway development, and theranostics, a personalized care approach that integrates molecular imaging and radiotherapy to detect and destroy advanced cancers while leaving healthy tissues untouched.