PITTSBURGH - March 22, 2010 - Omnyx, a joint venture of GE Healthcare and The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, today announced the launch of a Global Collaborators Program to advance Digital Pathology products, technology, and use for clinical applications.
The program's goals are to:
1) Increase adoption of digital pathology in clinical applications
2) Advise Omnyx on its digital pathology product strategy and design
3) Share digital pathology best practices and case examples
The Collaborators Program brings together 31 true thought leaders across 13 institutions and 6 countries. Together, this group represents a truly broad array of leading institutions and clinicians/researchers all interested in moving forward the state-of-the art in Digital Pathology.
Rajiv Enand, Senior Vice President, Business Development at Omnyx, said, "Our company goal is to deliver a digital pathology system for clinical use across the globe. To achieve this objective, we needed significant engagement from a broad set of clinicians and administrators. At the onset of Omnyx, we engaged with pathologists at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). With the launch of the Collaborator's program, we are thrilled to expand on this by adding an additional 12 institutions to those who we would collaborate with. We are honored that this elite group is working with us to push this industry and technology forward."
Founding member organizations by country include (in alphabetic order):
- Asia Health Partners, Singapore
- Institute Gustav Roussy, France
- IsMeTT, Italy
- LabCorp, United States
- Memorial Sloan Kettering, United States
- Montefiore Medical Center, United States
- The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Scotland
- Stanford Hospital & Clinics, United States
- University Health Network, Canada
- University Hospitals Birmingham, United Kingdom
- University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), United States
- University of Rome (La Sapienza), Italy
Dr. George Michalopoulos, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh, said "Digital Pathology has been a focus area for us for many years. We recognized early, however, that for full clinical adoption, new thinking on pathology workflow technology was required. Workflow technology that creates the greatest level of productivity can only be done with direct involvement of the larger global Pathology community. We are excited to be working with this world class team."
Collaborators Program member Dr. Daniel Arber, Associate Chair of Pathology for Clinical Services at Stanford Hospitals & Clinics, highlighted benefits of membership "In the coming years, Digital Pathology will play a major role in pathology practices. The Collaborators Program gives practicing pathologists influence over digital microscopy design and implementation so that pathologists can practically apply this technology in everyday use. This could result in improved turn-around-time and allow remote access to slides for rapid consultation."
"Creating a digital pathology system that pathologists will actually use in their clinical practice requires a careful study of the pathologists' activities in different settings. To obtain this, the only way is to organize a close collaboration between industry and the clinical community. In this context, we are pleased to be a member of Omnyx's Collaborators Program to help represent European viewpoints and ensure global input is taken into consideration during the design development. " said Dr. Carlo Della Rocca, Full Professor of Pathology at the Department of Experimental Medicine of "Sapienza" University of Rome and Chairmen of the University Pathology Service and of The Department of Support Clinical Activities - AUSL Latina.
Dr. Sylvia Asa, Pathologist-in-Chief at the University Health Network in Toronto Canada concluded, "In Canada, we face the challenge of providing specialty pathology expertise not only to people in major metropolitan areas, but equal access to rural, remote and underserved populations. Many countries face similar remote care delivery challenges. The Omnyx Collaborators Program provides a global forum where we can mutually share best practices on how digital pathology can meet these, and other significant challenges."
Dr. Kim Dickinson, LabCorp Medical Director Irvine CA, said, "As one of the world's leading reference laboratories, we see Digital Pathology as game changing for our business. Moving glass slides into a digital form will enable significantly more flexibility in our business and our improve ability to connect with our customers. The result will be faster turnaround times, better collaboration, and improved efficiency. Omnyx's Collaborators Program lets us ensure our views and needs are considered when considering the design of their advanced systems."
Membership in Omnyx's Collaborators Program is non-exclusive and does not represent an endorsement by the member organizations of Omnyx or its products. Member organizations have no financial interest in Omnyx as part of their participation in the Omnyx Collaborators Program.
More information on Omnyx's Collaborators Program, including individual member names, biographies, and Collaborators Program members' current digital pathology research, can be found by visiting www.Omnyx.com.
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About Omnyx
Omnyx, LLC is a joint venture of GE Healthcare and The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center with locations in Pittsbugh, PA and Piscataway, NJ. The company is developing an enterprise platform to transform the scope of pathology to an all-digital workflow. The company will sell their digital pathology platform to clinical labs and offer an enterprise software platform for image management, workflow automation, image analysis algorithms and system integration along with its high speed whole-slide scanners. Close collaboration with pathologists at UPMC and other institutions along with their relationship with GE Healthcare allows Omnyx to focus its innovation on the needs of anatomic pathologists worldwide. Omnyx digital pathology products are currently in development and have not yet been cleared by the FDA.
About UPMC
UPMC is an $8 billion integrated global health enterprise headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and one of the leading nonprofit health systems in the United States. As western Pennsylvania's largest employer, with 50,000 employees, UPMC is transforming the economy of the region into one based on medicine, research and technology. By integrating 20 hospitals, 400 doctors' offices and outpatient sites, long-term care facilities and a major health insurance services division, and in collaboration with its academic partner, the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, UPMC has advanced the quality and efficiency of health care and developed internationally renowned programs in transplantation, cancer, neurosurgery, psychiatry, orthopaedics and sports medicine, among others. UPMC is commercializing its medical and technological expertise by nurturing new companies, developing strategic business relationships with some of the world's leading multinational corporations and expanding into international markets, including Italy, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Cyprus and Qatar. For more information about UPMC, visit our website at www.upmc.com
About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance solutions services help our customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In addition, we partner with healthcare leaders, striving to leverage the global policy change necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable healthcare systems. Our "healthymagination" vision for the future invites the world to join us on our journey as we continuously develop innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality and efficiency around the world. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com.
For more information contact:
Tony Melanson, Vice President, Strategy & Marketing
[email protected]
412-894-2100