GE HealthCare and Mass General Brigham Evolve Their AI Collaboration with Medical Imaging Foundation Models

Based on its long-term artificial intelligence (AI) partnership, GE HealthCare and Mass General Brigham plan to integrate medical imaging foundation models into their AI research work, with a strong focus on responsible AI practices. Both organizations have been working closely on AI solutions since announcing their 10-year commitment in 2017 to explore the use of AI across a broad range of diagnostic and treatment paradigms through sustainable AI development.

“The relationship between Mass General Brigham’s commercial AI business (Mass General Brigham AI) and GE HealthCare has helped accelerate the introduction of AI into a range of product offerings and digital health solutions. With foundation models, we are witnessing the next wave of AI innovation, and it is already reshaping how we build, integrate and use AI,” said Dr. Keith Dreyer, Chief Data Science Officer, Mass General Brigham. “I think we are all optimistic that foundation models may actually complement and enhance the work we have been doing with convolutional neural networks over the past few years. Hopefully, this work will help make healthcare delivery more efficient for our practitioners, more accessible for our patients and more equitable for our diverse communities.”

The traditional approach to integrating AI into healthcare systems requires the retraining of models to accommodate the unique requirements of different patient populations and hospital settings. This can lead to increased costs and complexity, and in addition, hinder the broad adoption of AI technologies in the healthcare industry. Foundation models have the potential to transform healthcare by improving workflow efficiency and imaging diagnosis, since they have demonstrated strong capabilities in solving a diverse set of tasks. Foundation models have emerged as a reliable and adaptable foundation for developing AI applications tailored to the healthcare sector.

“GE HealthCare and Mass General Brigham have a long-standing AI collaboration that has produced AI-powered tools which help increase operational effectiveness and productivity. Now, with adding foundation models to our research work, we will be able to take the next step of digital and AI transformation to develop technology innovations that provide better patient care and outcomes,” said Parminder Bhatia, Chief AI Officer, GE HealthCare. “Incorporating responsible AI practices into this phase, we are committed to ensuring these innovations adhere to guidelines, prioritize patient safety and privacy, and promote fairness and transparency across all applications.”