GE Healthcare, a division of General Electric Company and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) announced the formation of a new company to improve the speed, efficiency of diagnosis and interpretation of lab results.

Omnyx, LLC, the new joint company, will bring to market digital solutions to shape a new age of patient care and apply those solutions to a science that has relied on glass slides and microscopes for over 125 years.

In GE's history, Omnyx is the first company to be created with an academic medical center. It represents a goal to speed up marketing ideas through augmented co-development.

Omnyx's digital platform will strive to allow clinicians to share images virtually, interpret results using advanced algorithms and lower costs associated with diagnosis. Benefits to patients could include lowering medical errors, better turnaround time for lab results and integrating pathology information as part of a patient's electronic medical record.

Gene Cartwright, a 26-year healthcare veteran and former president of GE Healthcare's molecular diagnostics, has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Omnyx by GE and UPMC. According to Cartwright the new company will revolutionize patient care and expand GE vision for Early Health - the ability to diagnose disease at the earliest possible stage, which in turn can lead to more effective treatment and monitoring. "Digitizing pathology will allow Omnyx to provide doctors with better tools for the full care continuum, enhancing their decision-making capabilities in key disease areas," he says.

Biologists, applied physicists, visualization scientists, mechanical and electrical engineers, high-performance computer scientists and optical engineers at GE worked for three years to develop the first prototype systems. The research team applied GE's extensive experience in digital x-ray imaging to surmount what appeared to be tough barriers for a mainstream product that includes image quality and speed of scanning slides. Building on prior developments in GE's Global Research Center, Omnyx will link UPMC's pioneering developments in digital pathology with GE's technology to create a viable solution for high-volume clinical use.

George K. Michalopoulos, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chairman of the Department of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh and pathologist at UPMC said that digital pathology provides a platform for the creation of new tools that will help pathologists screen large numbers of slides in search of a small nest of cells or a few bacteria to quickly and accurately diagnose disease. He believes this innovative collaboration with GE will help to address the critical cost and quality issues facing healthcare today. According to Michalopoulos, the formation of Omnyx underscores UPMC's strategy of leveraging its medical, technology and research expertise to create solutions that benefit patients worldwide. At the same time, this new, Pittsburgh-based company will contribute to the continuing revitalization of the economy of western Pennsylvania.

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