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Ultrasound

GE HealthCare Adds Ultrasound Guidance with Caption Health Acquisition

GE HealthCare took a major step towards expanding its ultrasound systems to new users and settings, acquiring AI guidance startup Caption Health.

GE plans to integrate Caption’s AI guidance technology into its ultrasound platform, starting with POCUS devices and echocardiography exams. GE specifically emphasized how its Caption integration will help streamline echo adoption among novice operators and bring heart failure exams into “doctors’ offices, the home, and alternate sites of care.”

• That’s particularly notable given healthcare’s major shift outside of hospital walls, especially considering that Caption has already developed a unique home echo exam and virtual diagnosis service. 
• It’s also another sign that GE sees big potential for at-home ultrasound, coming less than a year after investing in home maternity ultrasound startup Pulsenmore.

GE didn’t disclose the tuck-in acquisition’s value. However, Caption is relatively large for an AI startup (79 employees on LinkedIn, >$62M raised) and is arguably the most established company in the ultrasound guidance segment (FDA & CE approved, CMS-reimbursed, notable alliances).

• The fact that GE HealthCare has already made two acquisitions since spinning off in early January (after a 16 month pause) also suggests that the newly-independent medtech giant has returned to M&A mode.

Of course, the acquisition is another sign that the imaging AI consolidation trend remains in full swing, marking at least the ninth AI startup acquisition since January 2022 and the third so far in 2023.

• One contributor to that AI consolidation surge appears to be ultrasound hardware vendors acquiring AI guidance companies, noting that GE’s Caption acquisition comes about six months after Exo’s acquisition of Medo AI.

The Takeaway

Ultrasound’s potential expansion to new users and clinical settings could create the kind of growth that most modalities only experience once in their lifetime (or never experience), and ease of use might dictate how far ultrasound is able to expand. That could make this acquisition particularly significant for GE HealthCare and for ultrasound’s path towards far broader adoption.

RP and I-MED’s Perspectives on CARPL.ai

Watch industry leaders and trendsetters in radiology, Dr. Krishna Nallamshetty, CMO at Radiology Partners, and Dr. Ron Shnier, CMO at I-MED Radiology Network, share their perspectives on the CARPL platform, from clinical trials to clinical deployment at RSNA 2022.

What it Means to be Built for the Modern World

Find out what built for the modern world means — and why it matters — in this Aunt Minnie profile on United Imaging’s more modern approach to vertical integration, leadership, and culture.

The Wire

• ACR TI-RADS Detection Advantage: A new AJR study found that ACR TI-RADS has the highest diagnostic performance among the six leading ultrasound-based thyroid nodule risk systems. Meta-analysis of 39 studies with 49.6k patients showed that the six systems (ACR-TIRADS, K-TIRADS, Kwak TIRADS, EU-TIRADS, ATA, AACE/ACE) detected thyroid cancer with sensitivity ranging from 65% to 77% and specificity ranging from 82% to 90%. ACR TIRADS was at the top of those sensitivity and specificity ranges, followed by K-TIRADS. 

• RadNet’s DTC AI Play: The “who will pay for AI” debate added a new angle with the emergence of RadNet’s Enhanced Breast Cancer Detection (EBCD) service, which allows women to enhance their annual mammography screenings with RadNet’s DeepHealth AI solutions for an additional fee. The EBCD service is supported by the kind of consumer-oriented marketing that’s rarely seen within radiology, is already available at select RadNet centers, and was highlighted in the White House’s Cancer Moonshot announcement in December. 

• Ultrafast MRI Breast Lesion Upgrading: NYU Langone researchers found that preoperative ultrafast dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI could improve clinicians’ ability to predict which DCIS lesions would be upgraded to invasive cancer following surgery, thus helping with surgical planning. The study of 68 women with biopsy-proven DCIS lesions who underwent UF DCE-MRI (26 w/ upgraded lesions) showed that various UF MRI kinetic features (e.g. TTE, lesion size) combined to predict whether lesions would be upgraded to invasive cancer with an 0.85 AUC.

• 2023’s Best in KLAS: Congrats to medical imaging’s 2023 Best in KLAS winners, including some of the vendors that you see atop each Imaging Wire issue like Merative (Merge Cardio & Merge Hemo) and Nuance (PowerShare Image Exchange), and other informatics leaders like Visage (Universal Viewer), Sectra (PACS), and Fujifilm (VNA).

• Post-Acute COVID Xe MRI: New research out of Canada showed that 129-Xe MRI ventilation exams can help assess post-acute COVID-19 syndrome recovery. The researchers scanned 53 participants at 3 months and 15 months, finding improvements in 129-Xe MRI ventilation defect percent (5.4% vs. 4.2%), forced expiratory volume in 1-second (85% vs. 90%), and diffusing capacity percent (89% vs. 99%). VDP at 3-months was associated with improved 15-month exercise capacity (p=0.001), while medication treatment was linked with improved 15-month quality-of-life scores (OR: 4.0; p=0.03).

• Tempus and Arterys’ Multimodal Vision: Four months after Tempus acquired Arterys, a Fierce Healthcare profile with Tempus CEO Eric Lefkofsky provided insights into Tempus’ motivations and vision for combining the companies. Lefkofsky explained how Arterys adds a key imaging component to Tempus’ diagnostic portfolio (joining its pathology, oncology, clinical, and molecular specialties), and envisions this multimodal combination supporting more precise clinical diagnoses and treatment decisions, while also improving Tempus’ drug discovery capabilities.

• CCTA EAT’s CV Risk Predictions: JACC detailed a deep learning coronary CTA model that quantifies epicardial adipose tissue (EAT)–fat on the surface of the myocardium–and improves cardiovascular risk predictions. The authors trained and validated the model using 3.7k CCTAs. When applied to CCTAs from 253 cardiac surgery patients and 1,558 SCOT-HEART trial patients, it yielded an impressive machine vs. human concordance correlation coefficient of 0.97. The authors also found that EAT volume was associated with CAD (OR: 1.13), and AFib (OR: 1.25).

• Surprise Billing Reversal: Physician lobbyist groups are celebrating a U.S. District Court’s ruling that parts of the surprise billing independent dispute resolution process violate the Administrative Procedure Act. The Texas court found that this component of the No Surprises Act unfairly favors payors by basing decisions on the ‘qualifying payment amount’ or median in-network rate for healthcare services (calculated by payors). The judge vacated portions of the final rule and sent it back to the federal government for revisions.

• Stroke AI, Ideally Required: Stroke AI vendors celebrated their inclusion in the American Heart Association’s new “ideal foundational requirements” for stroke programs, which specifically call for the “use of advanced neuroimaging with AI” at acute stroke-ready hospitals (among other non-AI recommendations). The scientific statement was unveiled at the 2023 International Stroke Conference, where it was positioned as a “call to action for stroke centers” and a contributor to future stroke care guidelines.

• HHS Roadmap for End of PHE: With the pandemic public health emergency slated to end on May 11, HHS sent a letter to US governors with a roadmap for easing the transition. An attached fact sheet outlined the major areas impacted, most notably the end to Medicare and Medicaid waivers, many provider flexibilities, and the ability to prescribe controlled substances via telemedicine without an in-person interaction.

• Must-Have AI: An Applied Radiology editorial by neuroradiologist Amine Korchi, MD argues that although AI hasn’t crossed the chiasm into widespread usage yet, it’s on a path towards transitioning from a “nice-to-have” to “must-have.” Dr. Korchi provides a solid overview of radiology’s history of tech innovation and the current need to improve imaging efficiency and accuracy, while outlining a more comprehensive list of imaging AI use cases than we’ve seen in quite a while.

Duke’s Case for ClearRead CT

This Riverain Technologies case study details how Duke University Medical Center integrated ClearRead CT into its chest CT workflows, reducing read times by 26% and improving nodule detection by 29%.

Pediatric Hydrocephalus’ Radiation Impact

“We care about how we image these children because we don’t like them to get radiation.” That’s Nationwide Children’s Hospital neurosurgery chief, Jeffrey Leonard, MD, explaining why he endorses monitoring pediatric hydrocephalus patients using the Hyperfine Swoop Portable MR (rather than CT) in this revealing webinar.

Unleash the Power of the Cloud

Change Healthcare’s cloud-native, zero-footprint Stratus Imaging PACS is live in clinical use. See how Stratus Imaging PACS is helping radiology practices improve productivity and patient care, while eliminating the cost and resource constraints of on-premise systems.

The Resource Wire

• GE HealthCare’s recent MR 30 for SIGNA software release created a new path towards continual MRI scanner improvements, including AIR Recon DL’s extension to 3D and motion-insensitive PROPELLER imaging sequences, and integrating a host of MR additional applications.

• See why radiologist Dr. Eleanna Saloura called Arterys’ Lung AI solution “a fast and reliable second opinion” for chest CT lung nodule analysis and tracking, allowing “more accurate diagnostic and treatment decisions.”

• Check out this Imaging Wire Show featuring Us2.ai’s co-founders – James Hare and Dr. Carolyn Lam – for a great discussion about Us2.ai’s continued clinical and commercial expansion, and their efforts to improve echocardiography accuracy, efficiency, and accessibility.

• Is your in-office MRI service prepared for the future? See how three macro trends will impact your in-office orthopedic MRI service, and the MRI capabilities you’ll need in the future in this Siemens Healthineers report.

• Merative’s Merge Imaging Solutions had a big Best in KLAS 2023, winning the Cardiology and Hemodynamics categories for the 6th and 10th consecutive years, while scoring second place honors in the Large PACS, Universal Viewer, and VNA categories.

• Proper patient data anonymization and deidentification is a must, but it can be challenging to do while still retaining clinical relevance. This Enlitic panel of data anonymization experts explores how to do anonymization and deidentification the right way, while giving a sneak peek into Enlitic’s upcoming anonymization product, Curie|ENCOG.

• Radiology is leading healthcare’s AI revolution, and yet many people in radiology are just starting to build their understanding of AI. That’s why Bayer published its truly Complete Guide to Artificial Intelligence in Radiology, detailing how AI can address radiology’s challenges, AI’s core use cases, and AI’s path towards adoption.

• Can you tell which of these images are from a 3T MRI and which are from a 1.5T scanner and enhanced with Canon’s AiCE Deep Learning Reconstruction? Take the AiCE Challenge to find out.

• Nuance just scored three #1 Best in KLAS 2023 distinctions, including PowerShare’s win of the Image Exchange category with an impressive 89.1 customer satisfaction score.

• When Middlesex Health set out to adopt imaging AI, the Connecticut-based community hospital made the unique decision to start with non-interpretive AI solutions. See how that decision led them to Subtle Medical, and the impact it had with all of the hospital’s imaging stakeholders.

• CD burning issues? Check out this one-minute video showing how Novarad’s CryptoChart image sharing solution allows patients to easily access and share their medical images using personalized, highly secure QR codes (not CDs).

• Thinking about AI ROI? Check out this AIMed conversation featuring Blackford CEO, Ben Panter and Lahey Hospital & Medical Center’s radiology Chairman, Dr. Christoph Wald discussing how to demonstrate the value of healthcare AI.

• Faced with two aging legacy PACS systems, South Jersey Radiology Associates moved to Intelerad’s IntelePACS, allowing its 12 sites to operate as a single, more-efficient entity. See how SJRA has since improved its radiologist efficiency by 8% to 10% and achieved a unified experience across its locations.

• annalise.ai’s Annalise CXR solution detects up to 124 findings in a single chest X-ray. See how it detects such a wide range of abnormalities using these demo studies…  or upload your own CXR images.