Thirty linear steps lead to 30 and 30 exponential steps lead to a billion. Technology grows exponentially and GE Healthcare is at the forefront of fostering and implementing such technologies in the med-tech industry. The company has a thriving campus for innovation, research and development (R&D) and export quality manufacturing in Bengaluru—50 acres of closely connected facilities which promise to position GE Healthcare and, thereby, India as a leader in the global med-tech market.
Keiran Murphy, who took over as CEO of GE Healthcare recently, has a vision of creating products optimised for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and investing heavily on data analytics in India. “As part of GE Healthcare’s business, setting up infrastructure without holding back on investments and introducing the concept of command centres in Indian healthcare are indispensable.” This would then lead to what GE calls as ‘precision health,’ which involves early detection and prevention of diseases by collection of data from patients. GE Healthcare aims to be at the centre of the Indian healthcare ecosystem to enable precision health.
“The technologies that will enable GE to build an ecosystem of high-tech precision healthcare include AI, genomics, additive manufacturing a.k.a 3D printing, blockchain technology and robotics,” says Dileep Mangsuli, CTO, GE Healthcare, India. These technologies will not only connect experts and increase productivity, but will solve cost, quality and skill related issues. For example, GE’s AI based platform can detect tuberculosis with 96% accuracy, almost at a fraction of time taken by a human. The system is trained with thousands of actual X-rays done for tuberculosis. With time, more data will go into the system and accuracy levels are expected go up.
With respect to the machines that would be part of this ecosystem, Mangsuli bets big on creating ‘smart’ imaging and diagnostics devices. These are machines that will be connected to AI-based apps and can also be integrated with third-party apps. The machines will include high definition MRI, mammography and CT scan machines, initially. The importance of connecting the devices lies in the fact that only 25% of devices in operation today are connected, globally. When more devices get connected, multiple possibilities of treating diseases more efficiently arise. This is where things get sci-fi-esque. What this means to the evolution of machines is that the way in which technicians and doctors interact with machines will see a ground shift. Interacting through voice will be the next big thing. The industry for tele-ICU (Intensive Care Units)—providing intensive care to patients remotely, and real-time monitoring of patients with wearable devices will boom and these devices will begin to learn from one another. 3D printing will be effectively used to create models of fractured bones or to make prosthetics based on patient data collected with these devices. On the genomics front, the data collected from cell therapies will see a significant growth and blockchain technology can be used to securely share these data. Like how coders can re-write/modify codes to solve real time problems, data driven extrapolations from cell therapies can be used to re-write genomes to cure genetic disorders.
At the moment, however, things are a little closer to the ground yet futuristic. GE Healthcare, through its public-private partnerships, has over 200 CT and MRI machines spread across 17 states in India. This has reduced travelling strain and cost for rural population to avail medical diagnostics. It has recently joined hands with SAMEER (an R&D unit under department of electronics and information technology) for indigenously developing 1.5T MRI systems (low cost, smaller systems). The company also procures finished components from select suppliers for other machines as well, enabling localisation. In order to up-skill technicians to work with the ecosystem, GE Healthcare has its own institute with 42 centres. It also aims to make a social impact by providing employment and empowering female candidates through the centres.
As humans, we see things with local, linear lenses. The work that comes out from GE Healthcare is a reminder to see things with global, exponential lenses. The future of healthcare is unfolding now.
Source: financialexpress.com