GE HealthCare and Connecticut-based Hartford HealthCare announced that they have renewed a seven-year collaboration that began in 2016 to now extend through 2030, aiming to advance the healthcare system's mission to provide personalized coordinated quality care. The Care Alliance strives to assist Hartford HealthCare in increasing access to innovation while decreasing the total cost of care for patients. Hartford HealthCare will upgrade its imaging technology using a phased approach to the acquisition, deployment and redeployment of essential equipment like CT, PET/CT, MRI, X-ray, nuclear medicine, mammography, ultrasound and OEC 3D surgical imaging C-arm, keeping Hartford HealthCare's imaging technologies current with the latest advancements in software, artificial intelligence and future innovations.

The collaboration will increase patients' access to GE HealthCare's most current imaging technology, and may provide shorter scan times, reduced waiting times for care, and enable clinicians to have greater accuracy in diagnostic assessments. The agreement also includes GE HealthCare patient monitoring, anesthesia, maternal infant care and diagnostic cardiology technologies. Many of the new imaging systems in the collaborative effort will include tested AI and machine learning software, which will augment clinical expertise.

For example, Critical Care Suite 2.0 is a software solution designed to assist clinicians in the intensive care unit by providing AI-powered insights and analytics to analyze medical images and detect potential critical conditions in real-time, such as collapsed lungs or errors in chest x-ray acquisitions12. By optimizing image reconstruction, AIR?? Recon DL reduces artifacts, enhances image clarity, and enables shorter scan times3.

It enables healthcare providers to obtain high-quality diagnostic images while improving patient comfort and workflow efficiency. Under the renewed service agreement, GE HealthCare technicians will be available in-house to repair and complete maintenance on all equipment within the scope of the collaboration. Additionally, regular upgrades to equipment will help ensure Hartford HealthCare's fleet of imaging technology is optimized with the most innovative technology and tools available.

The collaborative relationship with facilities, operations, clinical engineering and GE HealthCare's project management and service teams will continue the holistic framework for maximizing the performance and longevity of Hartford HealthCare's equipment with a focus on patient safety. GE HealthCare and Hartford HealthCare will also execute build-in-place upgrades with some existing MRI, CT, PET/CT, and X-rays to refresh older systems with fewer construction costs and while minimizing waste, equipment downtime, and disruption to patient care.