The GE Healthcare booth is seen before 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 | fake images
GE Health Care announced a new artificial intelligence application on Monday that it said will save time for doctors who diagnose and treat cancer.
CareIntellect for Oncology, as the tool is called, will help oncologists get up to speed on a patient's history and disease progression by quickly showing them the data they need, the company said. GE HealthCare wants to save oncologists the headache of reviewing records so they can focus on caring for their patients, the company said.
Healthcare data is notoriously difficult to analyze, and up to 97% of data produced by hospitals goes unused, according to a Deloitte report. That information is stored in numerous providers and file formats, such as images, lab test results, clinical notes, and device readings, which can be extremely taxing for clinicians to sort through.
“It's very time-consuming and very frustrating for these doctors,” Dr. Taha Kass-Hout, global head of science and technology at GE HealthCare, told CNBC in an interview.
CareIntellect for Oncology will be able to summarize clinical reports and identify when patients deviate from their treatment plans, Kass-Hout said. The system can flag when a patient misses a lab test, for example, so their doctor can determine the best next steps.
“For cancer patients, the treatment process can last years and involve numerous visits to the doctor,” he said.
CareIntellect for Oncology from GE HealthCare
Courtesy of GE HealthCare
CareIntellect for Oncology can also help identify relevant clinical trials that patients might be eligible for, saving oncologists hours of work, said Chelsea Vane, vice president of digital products at GE HealthCare. That process has traditionally required doctors to review a database of available trials, memorize inclusion and exclusion criteria and review patient records to determine which is appropriate, Vane told CNBC.
“What we've done is eliminate that,” he said.
The purpose of the new app is to save oncologists time and effort, but if doctors want to delve into more detail, CareIntellect for Oncology allows them to view the original record being referenced, the company said.
GE HealthCare plans to make CareIntellect for Oncology widely available to U.S. customers in 2025, and will initially be optimized for prostate and breast cancers. Health organizations such as Tampa General Hospital are already evaluating it, the company said. Since the tool is cloud-based, it will generate recurring revenue for GE HealthCare, Kass-Hout said.
The company plans to introduce additional apps under the CareIntellect brand in the future, Kass-Hout said. The oncology tool is the first offering, and healthcare organizations will be able to easily choose which 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 previewed Monday.
The company highlighted 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 flag suspicious mammograms to radiologists more quickly.
GE HealthCare decided to preview the new tools to give customers an idea of the problems it is trying to solve, Kass-Hout said. The company will solicit feedback from healthcare organizations and work with regulators as necessary, he said.
For example, GE HealthCare is exploring how a group of AI agents can work together as a team to help doctors through its tool called Health Companion.
Health Companion agents will be trained as experts in specific domains, such as radiology, pathology or genomics, and will offer insights based on their experience, Kass-Hout said. Agents could identify whether a specific symptom is a side effect of treatment or a sign of disease progression, for example, and suggest next steps, he added.
Ideally, the tool will give doctors the same type of support they would expect when working with a multidisciplinary team, Kass-Hout said. But while consulting a panel of experts may take days or weeks, Health Companion would be available immediately.
“At the moment, it's an initial concept,” he said. “Our goal is to raise the level of care and stay ahead of the overload of doctors trying to care for their patients.”
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