GE Healthcare, the healthcare subsidiary of General Electric, received a $44 million (approximately €41 million) grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop artificial intelligence-assisted diagnostic tools for low- and middle-income countries. They will focus on obstetric and lung ultrasound to reduce maternal and infant mortality worldwide.
Reduce maternal and infant mortality
In 2020, almost 800 women died every day from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. The use of ultrasound allows monitoring the health conditions of the fetus (gestational age, fetal presentation, multiple gestation, ectopic pregnancy, fetal circulation, etc.). Born in low-income countries, children under 5 years of age commonly suffer from pneumonia (acute respiratory infection of the lung tissue caused by bacteria). Lung ultrasound allows early diagnosis for better treatment.
Caption Health, an American company acquired by GE Healthcare in February 2023, is in charge of developing these technologies. The latter is at the origin of the “Caption Guidance” software, which received authorization from the Federal and Drug Administration (FDA), which helps and guides healthcare professionals during cardiac ultrasounds using AI.
Help poorly trained professionals.
“This grant will help expand Caption Health’s cutting-edge technology to a large number of users and therefore help increase access to better quality healthcare.“, welcomed Roland Rott, president and CEO of GE HealthCare’s ultrasound division. In fact, Caption Health allows healthcare professionals, even those with little training, to be guided by machine learning systems during examinations ultrasound.
In France, GE Healthcare heads the AI Dream consortium, which aims to stimulate the creation of projects around AI applied to medical images. The collective is made up of the medical technology TheraPanacea, specialized in radiotherapy, the start-up Pixyl, an expert in neurological diagnosis aid, the health software publisher Evolucare, the Curie Institute, the Public Assistance – Paris Hospitals (AP-HP) , the Gustave Roussy center and the Saint-Joseph Hospital Foundation.
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