GE has launched a new initiative aimed at accelerating cancer innovation and improving care for 10 million patients around the world by 2020. As part of Thursday's announcement, GE is sponsoring a $100 million open innovation challenge to identify and bring to market ideas that advance breast cancer diagnostics.
As part of its healthymagination initiative, GE's Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt, alongside several venture capital partners, announced that GE will invest $1 billion over the next five years on R&D programs to expand its suite of advanced technologies and solutions for cancer detection and treatment, beginning with breast cancer.
"We envision a day when cancer is no longer a deadly disease," said Immelt. "When you add our cutting edge cancer detection technologies to the innovative ideas of our new partners, it's a powerful formula for tackling cancer and helping doctors and researchers improve care."
The $100 million global open innovation challenge that seeks to advance breast cancer diagnostics and help healthcare professionals better understand tumors associated with so-called triple negative cancer, a type of cancer that is less responsive to standard treatments and is typically more aggressive, as well as the molecular similarities between breast cancer and other solid tumors – improving early detection, allowing for more accurate diagnoses and ultimately helping doctors make the best possible treatment decisions based on each patient's unique cancer.
The challenge, open immediately for entries, was launched in collaboration with leading venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Venrock, Mohr Davidow and MPM Capital. The effort will also feature a special focus on data, in partnership with O'Reilly Media.
Among other announcements from GE on Thursday:
- Investment on the development of a “super database" meant to consolidate clinical, pathology, therapy and outcomes data in one place
- A new mobile mammography concept, SenoCase, that could transform access to screening in underserved areas
- A new imaging technique, SenoBright, that improves accuracy of breast exams and helps doctors better identify patients who need biopsies
- Partnerships in Wyoming, Saudi Arabia and China to expand access to mammography screening and breast cancer technology
"Extraordinary things can happen when you apply imagination to solve big problems," said Nancy Brinker, founder and CEO, Susan G. Komen for the Cure. "This initiative brings new innovation, commitment and significant resources to the table, and we're very excited about its potential to help us end suffering and death, on a global scale, from the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women."
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Breaking down silos
"Scientific discovery and advances in technology have induced a tipping point in our understanding of cancer," said Andrew von Eschenbach, GE healthymagination challenge judge and healthymagination advisory board member.
"To design and deliver integrated solutions for individual patients, we can no longer work in silos," he added. "We must combine our assets for diagnosis and therapy working in concert with partners across the private sector, government, NGOs and academia to create the right treatment for the right patient to achieve the right outcome, eliminating suffering and death from cancer."
As part of that effort, GE is also investing in the development of a first-in-kind "super database," which will consolidate clinical, pathology, therapy and outcomes data in one place to enable analysis and further accelerate innovation. It will be available in collaboration with leading cancer research, NGO and government organizations, starting with relevant cancer data from GE's Medical Quality Improvement Consortium, Clarient (a GE Healthcare company), the Premier healthcare alliance and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
"Cancer is a complex disease and because every patient's cancer is different, oncologists need advanced tools to 'fingerprint' individual cancerous tumors," said John Dineen, president and CEO, GE Healthcare. "GE Healthcare continually breaks new ground in advanced diagnostic and molecular imaging equipment, partnering with hospitals and physicians to better manage patients throughout the cancer journey. Today and as we look to the future, we will continue to help doctors characterize cancer at the cellular level. This empowers them with the targeted information they need to prescribe the most accurate and effective therapy for their patient the first time."
Improving access
GE announced its development of SenoCase, a new "ultra-portable" mammography device concept that will take a traditional digital mammography system and miniaturize it into an affordable portable unit the size of a large suitcase. Officials say the concept has the potential to transform access to breast health screenings for millions of women around the world, bringing life-saving technology to women where they live.
The company also previewed SenoBright, a contrast enhanced spectral mammography (CESM) technology that will enable more precise identification of breast cancer incidence for over one million women by 2020.
SenoBright's exclusive imaging technique, which combines digital mammography, low-and high-level x-rays and a common contrast agent, better identifies incidence of cancer and helps clinicians better select patients requiring biopsy. SenoBright will result in lower costs by reducing unneeded procedures and improving a doctor's ability to appropriately treat patients.
SenoBright is currently 510k clearance-pending at the FDA, and not available for sale in the United States, but outside the U.S., SenoBright has been installed in 17 care centers across Europe and Asia.
Other advanced technologies in development include a new positron emission tomography (PET) tracer. The goal of this tracer is to help doctors evaluate whether particular cancer treatments are working very early in the course of therapy, by measuring new blood vessel formation in tumors.
Thinking globally
GE also announced a three-year partnership with Susan. G Komen for the Cure to forge first-in-kind programs that bring the latest breast cancer technologies to more women in the United States and around the world. Initially, these programs will run in Wyoming, Saudi Arabia and China.
In Wyoming, GE is partnering with a number of in-state organizations for advancements in mobile mammography and digital appointment bookings, to help Wyoming address the challenges associated with being one of the most rural states in the U.S.
In Saudi Arabia, GE and the Ministry of Health have established a mutual partnership aimed at increasing access to breast cancer screening. GE will develop and deploy two mobile screening units in Riyadh City with the goal of screening 10,000 women within the first 12 months with a plan to start in October 2011. It's also reaching out to leading universities to launch an open innovation challenge for Saudi women in an effort to identify sustainable methods for improving breast cancer screening in the country.
In China, GE and partners will launch a broad outreach program later this year in the Guangdong Province aimed at raising awareness of and compliance with breast cancer screening procedures. The program will develop a local model to improve education and breast screening in rural areas.
To learn more about at the open global innovation challenge, visit healthymagination.com/challenge.
