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Cincinnati Children’s and GE HealthCare Build Collaborative Research Program to Drive Pediatric Imaging Innovation

Thursday, April 10, 2025

Cincinnati Children’s and GE HealthCare (Nasdaq: GEHC) will form a strategic research program focused on driving clinical and technical research to advance innovation for pediatric care delivery across modalities, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasound, molecular imaging (MI), and computed tomography (CT). The research program will establish the first pediatric Care Innovation Hub nationwide, representing a new model established by GE HealthCare and Cincinnati Children’s to combine their talents and resources to accelerate the impact of innovation and scientific activities for the benefit of pediatric patients.

Ranked as one of America’s best children’s hospitals by U.S. News & World Report, Cincinnati Children’s brings clinical and research excellence to pair with GE HealthCare’s leading global medical technology expertise. The findings and new technologies realized between the organizations could be utilized by care providers globally who serve pediatric populations to help improve clinical and patient care.

“This collaboration with GE HealthCare is an opportunity to increase our ability to impact and improve how children are imaged far beyond our own health system,” said Andrew Trout, MD, Director of Clinical Research at Cincinnati Children’s Department of Radiology and Medical Imaging.

“Collaborating with GE HealthCare is an opportunity to leverage Cincinnati Children’s clinical and research capabilities and participate in technology development with a global imaging leader. Rather than having to adapt techniques created for adults to pediatric use as is usually necessary, access to the latest technology at earlier stages of development will allow us to create pediatric-focused imaging technology from the beginning,” said Brian Coley, MD, Radiologist-in-Chief at Cincinnati Children’s. “Once developed, this partnership will foster translation into the broader pediatric healthcare ecosystem, bringing these advances to pediatric imaging worldwide and making the impact that Cincinnati Children’s, as a research powerhouse, is known for.”

With a ‘built for kids’ mission, this collaborative, multi-modality approach aims to further help build understandings and innovations for diagnostic imaging beyond pediatric use cases, as children are often the most challenging patients due to their wide range of sizes and unique positioning challenges.

“Pediatric research and increasing access to precision care technologies are priorities for GE HealthCare. We are thrilled to partner with the renowned Cincinnati Children’s to develop this Care Innovation Hub,” said GE HealthCare Vice President of Research & Scientific Affairs Erin Angel. “When we think of diagnostic imaging, we may be predisposed to think of aging populations who are experiencing serious illness or disease, but we also need to consider pediatric patients and how to improve the healthcare experience for all populations based on our learnings. That is what this Care Innovation Hub is about. It is a chance to do better and be better for all who may need diagnostic imaging whether it is for themselves or a loved one.”

Care Innovation Hub pillars

Developing pediatric excellence in MRI

This partnership aims to build and test prototypes of high-density MR coil arrays sized appropriately for children, which can help both increase patient comfort and enable more precise images in smaller patients. Additionally, there will be an emphasis on developing imaging techniques that address the challenges of imaging a child, such as highly accelerated and motion robust methods that enable rapid, high-quality exams in body, neurologic, cardiovascular, and musculoskeletal applications. 

Unlocking solutions in clinical challenges of ultrasound

Ultrasound projects developed will focus on engaging with radiology and cardiology departments at Cincinnati Children’s to collaborate on product development and ensure early clinical feedback specific to pediatric use to shape the future of GE HealthCare features and devices, including AI algorithms. GE HealthCare and Cincinnati Children’s will also work together to improve the use of ultrasound to gather measurable data, including development of new technology and clinical evidence for liver imaging techniques.

Evaluating Molecular Imaging in pediatrics

Cincinnati Children’s and GE HealthCare teams hope to evaluate new and emerging technologies in positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging, including the personalization of treatment plans based on optimized software workflows. Cincinnati Children’s and GE HealthCare intend to collaborate on optimizing and improving image reconstruction and developing evidence showing the utility of PET and SPECT imaging in pediatric imaging.

Optimizing, evaluating Computed Tomography for pediatrics

Cincinnati Children’s and GE HealthCare scientists plan to work together to further optimize and automate CT workflows for pediatric patients and the clinicians that serve them. Researchers will do this by evaluating new CT technology in a pediatric context and will disseminate best practices to health providers globally that administer pediatric care.