Based on their global analysis of the digital pathology market and the vendors serving it, Frost and Sullivan presents Omnyx with the 2009 Growth Strategy Leadership Award. This honor is also shared with GE Healthcare and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). The two global healthcare brands came together to form the joint venture in June of 2008.
“Over the last few years, a change in mindset has been evident in the pathology area, with increasing demands for automating the processes that take place in the laboratory – from improving the workflow to supporting better and faster care, and meeting the demands for advanced data management,” said Frost and Sullivan Programme Leader, Konstantinos Nikolopoulos.
“Digital pathology systems enable such an environment and Omnyx has demonstrated significant knowledge and dedication to gain a strong foothold in what can potentially be a multi-billion dollar global market. The ability to envisage the IT solutions in pathology, understand customer needs and to follow a growth strategy to address those is a testament to the company’s vision and the strength of the GE Healthcare and UPMC partnership and further validates the promise of digital pathology,” says Nikolopoulos.
“We are honored to receive this distinctive recognition from Frost & Sullivan,” says Gene Cartwright, CEO of Omnyx. “Our team is very focused on building a world-class product for pathologists and it’s very exciting to receive acknowledgement from thought leaders in healthcare for our efforts,” Cartwright concludes.
“Omnyx has strongly invested in end-user feedback to design, test and improve its digital pathology offering. By utilizing UPMC’s expertise in the pathology space the company has been able to work directly with world-class clinical users who are an integral part of the team. This is a unique arrangement and allows Omnyx to benefit both in terms of product design and by utilizing UPMC as a proving ground within its global network of hospitals and labs,” continues Nikolopoulos of Frost and Sullivan.
Tony Melanson, Vice President of Strategy and Marketing of Omnyx comments “We are developing a complete system that includes scanners, imaging software and workflow software. We are approaching digital pathology by looking at the challenge through the eyes of pathologists, histotechnicians and the information technology managers who work in and support high throughput clinical environments. Our approach has been to develop a system for pathologists by pathologists through a close relationship with UPMC. We recognized immediately that the transition to digital would only be successful if the products were developed based on a complete understanding of the user in the context of their clinical working environment,” Melanson concludes.
The products from Omnyx also address the major technical challenges that have historically existed in digital pathology: scanning speed, image quality, image viewing performance and image storage. The Omnyx scanner breaks the tradeoff between speed and image quality with its patented independent dual sensor technology that was developed in conjunction with the GE Research Center. Image viewing speed and performance have also historically been technical obstacles for digital pathology. By working with GE engineers in Israel, Omnyx has developed a streaming technology optimized for pathology images that will allow pathologists to navigate digital pathology images with near zero-latency over standard hospital networks and even from home. Image storage has been an obstacle and Omnyx is designing their storage system to scale to the needs of large scale clinical operations like UPMC. Omnyx is also working closely with the GE Enterprise Archive team to interoperate with that product for long term medical image archiving.
“GE Healthcare’s expertise covers several areas within medical imaging and healthcare information technologies and most of its products are the result of sustained and committed R&D investment. GE has a strong history of developing winning solutions in parallel areas to pathology – like radiology and cardiology for example – offering benefits such as multi-modality functionality, advanced image display and analysis tools, remote access capabilities and working interfaces with wider departmental and enterprise information systems to allow maximum efficiencies. Omnyx is perfectly positioned to draw from GE’s experience in solving technical challenges and its deep roots in engineering and can build upon the company’s proven product portfolio to deliver a market leading digital pathology platform,” concludes Nikolopoulos.
About Omnyx
Omnyx, LLC is a joint venture of GE Healthcare and The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center with locations in Pittsburgh, PA and Piscataway, NJ. The company is developing an enterprise platform to transform the scope of pathology to an all-digital workflow. The company will sell their digital pathology platform to clinical labs and offer an enterprise software platform for image management, workflow automation, image analysis algorithms and system integration along with its high speed whole-slide scanners. Close collaboration with pathologists at UPMC and other institutions along with their relationship with GE Healthcare allows Omnyx to focus its innovation on the needs of anatomic pathologists worldwide. Omnyx digital pathology products are currently in development and have not yet been cleared by the FDA.
About UPMC
UPMC is an $8 billion integrated global health enterprise headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and one of the leading nonprofit health systems in the United States. As western Pennsylvania’s largest employer, with 50,000 employees, UPMC is transforming the economy of the region into one based on medicine, research and technology. By integrating 20 hospitals, 400 doctors’ offices and outpatient sites, long-term care facilities and a major health insurance services division, and in collaboration with its academic partner, the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, UPMC has advanced the quality and efficiency of health care and developed internationally renowned programs in transplantation, cancer, neurosurgery, psychiatry, orthopaedics and sports medicine, among others. UPMC is commercializing its medical and technological expertise by nurturing new companies, developing strategic business relationships with some of the world’s leading multinational corporations and expanding into international markets, including Italy, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Cyprus and Qatar.
About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance solutions services help our customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In addition, we partner with healthcare leaders, striving to leverage the global policy change necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable healthcare systems.
Our "healthymagination" vision for the future invites the world to join us on our journey as we continuously develop innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality and efficiency around the world. 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
Media contact:
Corey Miller
Global Public Relations Manager
GE Healthcare IT
M +1 414 469 5499
E corey.miller@ge.com
Tony Melanson
VP Strategy and Marketing
Omnyx
M +1 412 894 2100
