Toronto Set to Become a World Class Medical R&D Centre
By Rachel Smith
GE Healthcare’s first global Pathology Imaging Centre of Excellence to advance digital imaging pathology solutions worldwide
The world-class Pathology Imaging Centre of Excellence will be funded by the digital pathology joint venture Omnyx, which is a partnership between GE Healthcare and The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
"The Omnyx joint venture was inspired in 2008 by a ground-breaking discovery at GE's Global Research Centre,” said John Rice, Vice Chairman, President and CEO, Global Growth & Operations, GE.
“The breakthrough technology is part of our global $6 billion healthymagination initiative to improve cost, quality and access in healthcare. Our partnership with the Ontario government has facilitated today's investment."
Omnyx will invest $7.75M along with a $2.25M grant from the Health Technology Exchange (HTX), a funding arm of the Ontario Network of Excellence.
Planned collaborative research and development (R&D) partnerships will bring an additional $7.2M, for a total investment of $17.2M over the next 3 years.
"The Centre is a perfect example of how HTX funding can facilitate medtech investment and job growth in Ontario,” said John Soloninka, HTX President & CEO.
“There is an incredible opportunity for Ontario to support the transformation of pathology with the global leader in this emerging field. We are in discussions with several other MNEs about how they too can gain commercialization advantage through Ontario."
GE Healthcare chose Toronto for its imaging R&D assets and infrastructure that are capable of supporting design, development, validation, and deployment of a global digital pathology (DP) initiative.
The global Pathology Imaging Centre of Excellence will be a boon for Canada’s health network and makes Toronto one of the leading medical research and development hubs in the world.
