GE HealthCare has recently become an independent entity, having spun off from the larger GE organization. With a focus on precision care, the company aims to improve patient outcomes by integrating segmented care and addressing gaps in healthcare workflows. To achieve this, GE Healthcare utilizes a digital transformation platform.

During an interview with Korea Biomedical Review, Vijay Subramaniam, General Manager of Imaging for ASEAN, Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, shared his insights on the radiology industry in Korea, as well as GE HealthCare's plans for the future of radiology.

At the beginning of the interview, Subramaniam emphasized the significance of the Korean market for GE HealthCare.

"Korea is our second-largest market in Asia, following China. The country has a high availability of imaging equipment, and the government has made significant investments,” Subramaniam said. “The country is one of the leading nations in the field of imaging."

Subramaniam also noted that Korea is among the leading countries in utilizing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) equipment.

Also, GE HealthCare places a high value on the Korean market because of the country's robust academic research community, he went on to say. 

"We are constantly hearing what new features are needed, and we see the Korean market as very important as it allows us to collaborate in terms of R&D and engineering, which in turn leads to better results," he said.

Subramaniam started his career with GE India in 2001 as a soft engineer and has worked in various roles in product R&D, marketing, and sales across countries including the U.S., France, and India. He is currently based in Singapore.  

He has been in the healthcare and medtech business for 20 years and has expertise in medical device development and commercialization, radiology imaging, and healthcare digital/AI technologies. 

From the perspective of a healthcare AI technology expert, Subramaniam did not think Korea was particularly lagging in AI and digital transformation. 

"I think it's following similar trends to other markets, and I think Korea has made significant progress over the last few years," Subramaniam said. "Healthcare is a major business, so it's inevitable that new technologies will be introduced in phases."

He said the phased introduction of new technologies is a general trend across all markets.

"We've had AI in radiology for more than a decade, and the adoption has been slow due to such a process," Subramaniam said.

However, Subramaniam explained that this had not stopped GE HealthCare's passion for applying the new technologies to its devices.

GE HealthCare has been introducing innovative technologies in the MRI field, and these include reconstruction with deep learning, noise reduction with denoising, and technologies that reduce scan time while improving image quality, he elaborated. 

"While hospitals may not have been entirely open to such technologies in the past, the effectiveness of utilizing AI-driven data is being demonstrated in journals."

Subramaniam expressed his belief that the adoption of new technologies, including AI, will accelerate even more due to the abundance of positive clinical data. He added that such technologies can help reduce doctors' workload burden, enabling them to focus solely on their patients.

To improve the workflow of doctors, GE HealthCare launched the Edison Digital Health Platform in 2022.

"The field of imaging is already evolving rapidly, with many players offering a variety of solutions," Subramaniam said. "The problem is that each product is so different that it is difficult for healthcare organizations and radiologists to apply them to patients one by one."

If doctors use each device and each solution separately, their workflow will naturally become extremely inefficient, Subramaniam added.

"The platform brings together the scattered solutions of each company's products on a single platform," Subramaniam said. "The platform is based on tying together any solution into a single ecosystem."

When the Edison platform brings together the best of each device and product in one ecosystem, it not only improves workflow but also solves network and privacy issues at once, he added.

The same is true for AI solutions. 

While there are many different AI technologies available, the platform's ecosystem makes it possible to orchestrate them all at once, he said. 

This means that no matter what solution the doctor is using, they can apply it as if it were a single device or program within the Edison platform, which is a great way to improve workflows, he noted. 

Subramaniam also mentioned that GE HealthCare is moving away from a profit-centric approach based on device sales.

"Only companies that go beyond selling devices and provide systems that are optimized for each medical institution and each doctor will survive in this field," Subramaniam said. "If you look at Korea, it's a single-payer system, so whether a hospital is using a high-end machine or a mid-range machine, the exam costs the same."

This means companies have to have a diverse portfolio to meet the needs of each customer, Subramaniam added.

Subramaniam stressed that this is why GE HealthCare has included AIR Recon DL on all of its devices.

AIR Recon DL is a solution that improves the signal-to-noise ratio, which affects image quality in MRI, and minimizes ringing artifacts, an error that appears as ripples in MRI images, which, when eliminated, increases the sharpness of the image.

"The technology can dramatically reduce MRI time while increasing image quality," he said. "The idea is that if you're using a GE HealthCare device, you should at least be able to get a good image."

The solution has been well recognized in Korea, with about 40 percent of the research published in journals coming from Korea, he added.

Subramaniam explained that the same goes for offering a remodeling solution rather than a replacement.

"This is a solution that minimizes the burden that a complete replacement of an expensive machine would place on a hospital," Subramaniam said. "We offer a solution that allows you to keep the most important part of the MRI machine, the magnet, and replace and add only the necessary elements."

As an example, Subramaniam said that even if a hospital purchased a GE HealthCare MRI device in 2012, it is possible to increase the machine diameter from 60 cm to 70 cm in line with the recent trend and apply AIR Recon DL technology within a week or two.

"For hospitals, this means that they can move to state-of-the-art equipment with minimal investment," he said.

According to Subramaniam, GE HealthCare prioritizes building strong customer relationships and enhancing the patient experience above all else. 

Upgrading technologies is one way to achieve this goal since it helps customers safeguard their investments by reducing out-of-pocket expenses.

This approach fosters positive customer relations, creates opportunities to introduce new technologies, and ultimately enhances the patient experience, he added.