GE HealthCare signs $30M MRI deal with Pennsylvania hospital network
GE HealthCare has signed a $30 million MRI procurement deal with a large Pennsylvania-based hospital system, the two announced Monday.
Bethlehem-based St. Luke’s University Health Network is the purchaser, seeking to expand access to advanced imaging while reducing scan times. The 15-hospital nonprofit said it hopes to standardize MR technology across its vast enterprise, which includes about 300 care sites spanning Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
“This is a major win for our patients and our community,” St. Luke’s Radiology Chairman Robert Fournier, MD, said in a statement April 28. “Medical specialties such as orthopedics, cardiology, and oncology rely on imaging for diagnosis and treatment planning. At St. Luke’s, we are committed to providing the best imaging technology because we understand its vital role in modern medicine.”
St. Luke’s previously inked a $30 million CT deal with GE HealthCare in 2023—the largest in the organization’s 150-year history at the time—and an $11 million deal for ultrasound in 2020. The hospital system also highlighted other perks outlined in the latest pact, such as reduced patient claustrophobia with wider scanners and artificial intelligence to speed up exams. Radiology practices can reduce scan times by up to 83% using GEHC’s Sonic DL AI application, according to previous research, “capturing an image of the heart in as little as a single heartbeat.”
St. Luke’s also will be the first hospital network in the U.S. to implement Intelligent Radiation Therapy for MR, a software solution that aims to “accelerate the radiation oncology care pathway.” It does so by enabling shorter timelines to treatment when compared to conventional CT for certain cancer types, GEHC noted. Altogether, St. Luke’s and the Chicago-based equipment manufacturer have partnered for over 30 years, the two estimated.
“We are proud to work with St. Luke’s to enable greater precision, efficiency and access to advanced technology for their patients,” Catherine Estrampes, MBA, president and CEO, U.S. and Canada, at GE HealthCare said in the announcement.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.