GE Teams With University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to Advance Breast Cancer Research
by Barbara Kram, Editor | March 07, 2007
GE is funding a breast cancer
imaging research center at
UNC Chapel Hill
imaging research center at
UNC Chapel Hill
WAUKESHA, WI. - GE Healthcare has announced a multi-year agreement with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to establish a Center for Research Excellence in Breast Cancer Imaging within the University's Biomedical Research Imaging Center (BRIC). This is a university-wide center for excellence created to advance and commercialize research and technological developments to detect, diagnose and treat breast cancer.
With funding from GE Healthcare, the Center will perform important breast imaging research projects including an evaluation of the role of contrast-enhanced mammography in breast cancer diagnosis, the development of image processing in improved digital mammography and mechanisms to reduce radiation dose to patients who undergo mammography.
An Advisory Board comprising GE and UNC representatives will consult with the Center on its research, education and service agenda.
"GE is committed to supporting the efforts of this center to validate new technological advances in tackling one of the most prevalent forms of cancer worldwide," said Mike Barber, chief technology officer for GE Healthcare.
Within this partnership, GE and UNC will also organize an annual lecture in breast cancer imaging featuring an internationally renowned expert in addition to imaging seminars conducted by industry leaders and researchers.
The director of the center will be Etta D. Pisano, M.D., Kenan professor of radiology and biomedical engineering and former chief of breast imaging at UNC. Dr. Pisano was the lead investigator of the Digital Mammographic Imaging Screening Trial (DMIST), a study which assessed the diagnostic accuracy of film and digital mammography in screening women for breast cancer. In addition to authoring more than 100 peer-reviewed and invited publications, Dr. Pisano has participated as a speaker in more than 300 scientific and educational programs and has served as principal investigator on over 20 research studies in breast imaging.
"I am delighted that GE is becoming the BRIC's first corporate partner and that they have such a strong corporate interest in supporting breast cancer imaging research," Pisano said.
About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, performance improvement, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform, treat and monitor disease, so patients can live their lives to the fullest.
GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases and other conditions earlier. Our vision for the future is to enable a new "early health" model of care focused on earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection and disease prevention. 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.
With funding from GE Healthcare, the Center will perform important breast imaging research projects including an evaluation of the role of contrast-enhanced mammography in breast cancer diagnosis, the development of image processing in improved digital mammography and mechanisms to reduce radiation dose to patients who undergo mammography.
An Advisory Board comprising GE and UNC representatives will consult with the Center on its research, education and service agenda.
"GE is committed to supporting the efforts of this center to validate new technological advances in tackling one of the most prevalent forms of cancer worldwide," said Mike Barber, chief technology officer for GE Healthcare.
Within this partnership, GE and UNC will also organize an annual lecture in breast cancer imaging featuring an internationally renowned expert in addition to imaging seminars conducted by industry leaders and researchers.
The director of the center will be Etta D. Pisano, M.D., Kenan professor of radiology and biomedical engineering and former chief of breast imaging at UNC. Dr. Pisano was the lead investigator of the Digital Mammographic Imaging Screening Trial (DMIST), a study which assessed the diagnostic accuracy of film and digital mammography in screening women for breast cancer. In addition to authoring more than 100 peer-reviewed and invited publications, Dr. Pisano has participated as a speaker in more than 300 scientific and educational programs and has served as principal investigator on over 20 research studies in breast imaging.
"I am delighted that GE is becoming the BRIC's first corporate partner and that they have such a strong corporate interest in supporting breast cancer imaging research," Pisano said.
About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, performance improvement, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform, treat and monitor disease, so patients can live their lives to the fullest.
GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases and other conditions earlier. Our vision for the future is to enable a new "early health" model of care focused on earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection and disease prevention. 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.
