GE Healthcare's booth is seen ahead of the 2022 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) at the China National Convention Center on August 28, 2022 in Beijing, China.
Yi Haifei | China News Service | Getty Images
GE Healthcare announced Monday a new artificial intelligence application that will save time for doctors diagnosing and treating cancer.
CareIntellect for Oncology, as the tool is called, will help oncologists stay informed about a patient's medical history and disease progression by quickly showing them the data they need, the company said. GE HealthCare wants to save oncologists the hassle of digging through paperwork so they can focus on caring for their patients, the company says.
According to a Deloitte report, healthcare data is notoriously difficult to analyze and up to 97% of data produced by hospitals remains unused. This information is stored across multiple vendors and in file formats such as images, lab test results, clinical notes, and device readings, which can be extremely stressful for physicians to sort through.
“It's very time consuming and very frustrating for these clinicians,” said Dr. Taha Kass-Hout, Global Chief Science and Technology Officer of GE HealthCare, in an interview with CNBC.
CareIntellect for Oncology will be able to summarize clinical reports and identify when patients are deviating from their treatment plans, Kass-Hout said. For example, the system can report if a patient misses a lab test so their doctor can determine the best next steps.
“For cancer patients, the treatment journey can take years and require numerous doctor visits,” he said.
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GE HealthCare's CareIntellect for oncology
Courtesy of GE HealthCare
“CareIntellect for Oncology can also help identify relevant clinical trials for which patients may be eligible, saving oncologists hours,” said Chelsea Vane, vice president of digital products at GE HealthCare. This process traditionally required doctors to search through a database of available studies, memorize inclusion and exclusion criteria, and search through patient records to determine a good fit, Vane told CNBC.
“What we’ve done is removed that,” she said.
The purpose of the new app is to save oncologists time and effort. However, if doctors want to delve deeper, CareIntellect for Oncology allows them to view the original referenced record, the company said.
GE HealthCare plans to make CareIntellect for Oncology widely available to U.S. customers in 2025, initially optimizing it for prostate and breast cancer. Healthcare organizations like Tampa General Hospital are already looking into it, the company said. Because the tool is cloud-based, it will increase GE HealthCare's recurring revenue, Kass-Hout said.
The company plans to introduce more apps under the CareIntellect brand in the future, Kass-Hout said. The oncology tool is the first offering, and healthcare organizations can easily select the apps they want to enable, he added.
GE HealthCare also hopes to integrate its CareIntellect products with some of the other early-stage AI initiatives it announced Monday.
The company unveiled five new AI products it is developing, including a collaborative team of AI agents, a tool to predict an aggressive type of breast cancer recurrence, and a tool to more quickly report suspicious mammography scans to radiologists.
GE HealthCare decided to preview the new tools to give customers a sense of the problems it is trying to solve, Kass-Hout said. The company will seek feedback from healthcare organizations and work with regulators as necessary, he said.
GE HealthCare, for example, is exploring how a group of AI agents can work together as a team to support doctors through its tool called Health Companion.
Health Companion agents are trained to be experts in specific areas such as radiology, pathology or genomics and provide insight based on their expertise, Kass-Hout said. For example, agents can identify whether a particular symptom is a side effect of treatment or a sign of disease progression and suggest further steps, he added.
Ideally, the tool would provide physicians with the same type of support they would expect when working with a multidisciplinary team, Kass-Hout said. While consultation with a panel of experts can take days or weeks, Health Companion would be available immediately.
“Right now it’s an early concept,” he said. “Our goal is to raise the standard of care and stay one step ahead of the overload of physicians trying to care for their patients.”
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