Partners HealthCare, GE to work together on AI projects

10-year collaboration will integrate deep learning into all aspects of patient care.


Artificial intelligence is expected to play an increasing role in healthcare delivery, but moving the application of predictive technology from the theory to reality has been a stumbling block.

A new partnership between Partners HealthCare and GE Healthcare is aiming at bridging this gap and bringing deep learning technology across the entire continuum of care.

Under a recently announced 10-year agreement between the Boston-based integrated delivery system and the health technology vendor, the partners hope to find ways to create “new business models for applying AI to healthcare and develop products for additional medical specialties,” the announcement noted.

For example, AI could be directed to solve problems in molecular pathology, genomics and population health.

The collaboration will occur through the newly formed Center for Clinical Data Science, a newly formed project of Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

The project will use multidisciplinary teams with broad access to data, computational infrastructure and clinical expertise. The initial focus of the relationship will be on the development of applications that are intended to improve clinician productivity and patient outcomes in diagnostic imaging.

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“This is an important moment for medicine,” said David Torchiana, MD, CEO of Partners HealthCare. “Clinicians are inundated with data, and the patient experience suffers from inefficiencies in the healthcare industry. By combining the expertise at Mass General and Brigham and Women’s with the spirit of innovation at GE, this partnership has the resources and vision to accelerate the development and adoption of deep learning technology. Together, we can empower clinicians with the tools needed to store, analyze and leverage the flood of information to more effectively deliver care to patients.”

Additionally, the teams will co-develop an open platform on which Partners HealthCare, GE Healthcare and third-party developers can rapidly prototype, validate and share the applications with hospitals and clinics around the world.

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