GE HealthCare to Buy AI-Enabled Ultrasound Company
GE HealthCare (Nasdaq: GEHC) has agreed to buy Caption Health Inc., a privately owned company that creates clinical applications to aid in early disease detection, using artificial intelligence to assist in conducting ultrasound scans.
Chicago-based GE HealthCare said the acquisition supports its $3 billion Ultrasound business by adding AI-enabled image guidance to ultrasound device portfolios.
In 2021, San Mateo, Calif.-based Caption Health was recognized as one of TIME's 100 Best Inventions and a winner of Fast Company's Next Big Things in Tech for health. With Caption AI applications, GE HealthCare said, ultrasound examinations can be easier and faster, enabling a broader set of healthcare professionals to conduct basic echocardiogram exams. This technology can help detect signs of diseases such as heart failure in at-risk patients across doctors’ offices, the home, and alternate sites of care, potentially preventing hospitalizations and supporting improved clinical outcomes.
“Guiding ultrasound users during examinations with the help of AI is of growing importance, especially as we reach a broader set of healthcare professionals, said GE HealthCare Ultrasound President and CEO Roland Rott, in a statement. “Caption Health’s AI applications help enable reliable, consistent ultrasound examinations to deliver more precise diagnoses, improved treatment decision-making, and ultimately improved patient outcomes. This tuck-in acquisition will help expand affordable access to ultrasound imaging to novice users and is aligned with a broader shift to precision care globally.”
“Combining our AI applications with GE HealthCare’s ultrasound devices will help accelerate our mission to detect disease earlier, when an easily obtained diagnostic image can be a great equalizer to health quality and outcomes. This will ultimately help us reduce costs and enhance care,” said Caption Health CEO Steve Cashman, in a statement.
As part of this acquisition, Caption Health will continue to provide management and administrative services to affiliated medical services providers (collectively referred to as “Caption Care”). By providing trained technicians across the country equipped with the Caption Health AI technology to perform cardiac ultrasounds in alternate sites of care and, in the future, in patient’s homes, Caption Care service is intended to support early diagnosis and detection before diseases like heart failure become more difficult to treat.
Caption Health also has a development pipeline of AI software, including technology for the use of ultrasound in pulmonary applications.
Chicago-based GE HealthCare is an $18 billion business with 50,000 employees in Imaging, Ultrasound, Patient Care Solutions, and Pharmaceutical Diagnostics businesses. Financial terms of the transaction were disclosed, but GE HealthCare said it intends to fund this transaction with cash on hand.
