CHICAGO, Ill. -- By Lee Han-soo/Korea Biomedical correspondent – GE Healthcare, which is planning a spinoff from GE on the first week of January next year, showed off over 40 medical imaging solutions to improve patient outcomes and increase healthcare efficiency at the Radiological Society of North America's (RSNA) 2022.

This year, the company aims to integrate segmented care and fill in the gaps in healthcare systems' workflows to improve patient outcomes, using a digital transformation platform.

Korea Biomedical Review met with Chaitanya Sarawate, GE Healthcare's Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, ASEAN, Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, to hear about the company's work in digital transformation.

Question: The hottest topic in the healthcare industry these days is digital transformation. What is the digital solution that GE Healthcare is focusing on, at this RSNA, and how do you assess GE Healthcare's competitiveness in imaging medical devices?

Answer: Before we think about digital transformation, we always start with what the customer problems are and how to solve them.

The industry faces some large problems, and GE Healthcare has divided them into three problem statements.

In the U.S., we see a significant amount of workload burden (on radiologists). The country requires close to 22,000 to 42,000 radiologists to have an efficient workflow, which is impossible to match.

Also, when radiologist societies conducted surveys regarding physician burnout in the U.S., the figure was lower than 20 percent in 2013. However, recent surveys show that more than 60 percent of radiologists experience burnout.

Therefore, we are trying to find a way to make the medical imaging process efficient for radiologists.

The second problem is that when we look at the ASEAN, Korea, Australia, and New Zealand regions, some countries have less developed healthcare systems and have problems providing access to the proper care due to a large population group.

The final problem would have to be how to improve patient outcomes.

Thankfully, GE Healthcare has digital solutions targeted to resolve each problem statement.

Q: What are GE Healthcare's digital solutions to resolve each problem statement?

A: For resolving radiologist workload and burnouts, we have something called the "Intelligent Workflow," which works on PACS (picture archiving and communication system). The system has shown that it can increase interpretation production by up to 21 percent and improve radiologists' productivity and reduce burnout.

We also have developed "Imaging 360 for Operations," which is an ecosystem of applications designed for core imaging operations functions such as protocoling, staffing, analytics, and scheduling. The system makes sure that the number of examinations increases through appropriate protocol appropriate scheduling and helps radiologists conduct 45 more scans a day.

Then we have AIR Recon DL, which has revolutionized MR imaging with deep-learning-based image reconstruction, increased image quality, reduced scan time, and improved signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The reconstruction helps reduce scan time by almost 50 percent.

Q: You mentioned about AI integration into the company's medical device imaging system. What are the effects of AI technologies on the healthcare industry, and what are GE Healthcare's strategy and vision in using AI in medical imaging?

A: For us, AI is a tool and is not an independent product by itself.

As long as we are able to solve today's and tomorrow's healthcare challenges, whether it is related to access, patient outcome, or workload of the healthcare professional, it is something that we'll ensure to deliver.

Also, what we are also noticing that for many of the diseases, including cancer and cardiac diseases, there are very diverse pieces of data, whether it is family history genomics, pathology lab data, and imaging, that need to be integrated in order for the radiologist to make a decision.

Therefore, we also aim to enable such integrations to help doctors provide personalized medicine to patients.

Our vision is to make sure the data is integrated and use AI to assist.

Also, at the end of the day, many radiologists have to deal with repetitive tasks that, ideally, they shouldn't be doing.

So we want to relieve them of those repeated tasks by using AI so that they are able to spend more time with the patients.

Q: The pandemic has dramatically increased the use of AI and digital transformation in the healthcare industry in a short period of time. How has the Covid-19 pandemic affected the industry? Were there any positive/negative effects due to the fast adaptation?

A: I would say from a positive standpoint, it changed the way people view healthcare needs to be delivered, despite some constraints that the radiologists may be facing.

The pandemic really opened the opportunity for AI and digital transformation to support physicians, who became more willing and open to accept such a concept.

From a negative standpoint, the process happened so fast that we are not currently utilizing the full potential of AI and digital transformation, whether it is in developed countries like Korea or Australia or developing countries like Indonesia or Vietnam.

Notably, the introduction of digitalization helped physicians provide care in rural areas, and that is generating a tremendous amount of data.

However, we are not using any of the data.

The lack of using data is especially more apparent in developing countries as some of the ASEAN countries have gone down the path of digitization but have yet to leverage the data and receive the full benefits.

Q: Is GE Healthcare working on any solutions to help countries more efficiently use the data?

A: We just announced a partnership with the U.S. Trade Association to help Indonesia initiate a pilot project for creating a cloud-based national imaging data depository.

The project will help connect primary care physicians across Indonesia with the centralized cardiology centers and help them communicate better by allowing them to use the digital data generated fully.

For example, for Indonesian patients living in a rural area, it is hard for them to come up to the nation's capital to receive the proper care. However, that does not mean that the patient does not deserve high quality care.

This project will also improve access for patients.

Q: We have talked a lot about the U.S. and ASEAN markets, but how important is the Korean market to GE Healthcare?

A: The Korean market is fantastic and is a really important business ground for three different reasons.

The country has great research capabilities, and whenever we come up with innovative technologies or new products, GE Healthcare is either working with Korean physicians to validate our devices and make sure that they're good.

Also, Korea has a lot of startups and companies in the field of medical imaging that is very prominent, and we are always looking for new applications that can be distributed along with our products.

Finally, Korea has a very large number of hospitals, which obviously means that they need cutting-edge technology like our products.

Q: GE is well known for its cooperation with Korean AI companies, including Lunit and Coreline Soft. Do you think Korea has AI competitiveness?

A: Of course. I think Lunit and Coreline Soft are great examples, and the cooperation with the two companies is just starting

GE Healthcare is looking for ways to make sure that we give them the benefit that we have to offer.

Q: A lot of other Korean companies also want to work with GE Healthcare. Are there any specific criteria that GE Healthcare looks for when selecting its partners?

A: GE Healthcare is looking for companies that are tackling problems worth solving and has a product that is workable.