Building on a collaboration that spans more than three decades, GE HealthCare has renewed its research collaboration with Stanford Medicine – with one of their key intentions being the development and research of innovative total body PET/CT technology. This effort is expected to explore new clinical pathways and help enhance patient outcomes through innovative imaging solutions. Molecular imaging – and specifically the utilization of PET/CT scanners – offers opportunities for precision care across various disease states.
It supports theranostics in oncology for advanced prostate cancer treatment, helps streamline radiation oncology workflows, aids in beta amyloid imaging for Alzheimer’s evaluation and monitoring, and assists in myocardial perfusion evaluation for diagnosing coronary artery disease. Unlike other imaging procedures, PET/CT technology visualizes, characterizes, and quantifies biological processes at the cellular level, aiding in early disease identification, detailed assessment, and treatment planning. It is a non-invasive solution, providing critical insights that help enhance patient care and can support accelerated drug development.
Knowing the potential of this technology, researchers at Stanford Medicine and engineers at GE HealthCare aim to advance a next-generation PET/CT designed to provide new opportunities to improve diagnosis, staging, therapeutic planning, and evaluation of treatment response across various care pathways. By leveraging the technology’s capabilities, both institutions believe it has the potential to drive new clinical pathways, expedite the development and translation of new diagnostic and therapeutic agents, support existing molecular imaging and theranostics applications, and promote enhanced healthcare system efficiency. In collaboration with a select group of leading healthcare institutions around the world, GE HealthCare aims to demonstrate how total body PET/CT imaging can overcome barriers that previously hindered widespread adoption of PET/CT beyond oncology.
This initiative seeks to expand the use of PET with the goal of leveraging ultra-high sensitivity total body PET/CT technology to push the boundaries of oncology by significantly reducing scan time and the injected dose – important considerations for all patients, but particularly vulnerable patients like pediatric, where ultra-fast scans can allow reduction in anesthesia and sedation in children. To support this advanced research, encourage new discoveries, and meet growing clinical demands, GE HealthCare designed its total body PET/CT technology with the goal of enabling ultra-low dose scans; fast acquisitions; multi organ dynamic imaging; and dual tracer imaging. All important factors that help improve diagnosis confidence.
In parallel, the technology aims to improve healthcare system efficiency by enhancing clinical workflows, supporting routine clinical practice, and improving operational efficiency.
