GE Healthcare Building a Stronger Network in the Fight Against Cancer

PITTSBURGH and ALISO VIEJO, CA, March 24, 2015 — Amidst an estimated 70 percent increase in cancer diagnosis in the next two decades and an estimated 1.41 million misdiagnoses of cancer, healthcare providers and patients today face significant challenges. [i],[ii],[iii],[iv],[v],[vi]  To help combat this issue, GE Healthcare (NYSE: GE) announced a strategic collaboration between its digital pathology joint venture, Omnyx, LLC, and its industry-leading diagnostic laboratory services company, Clarient Diagnostic Services, Inc.

Clarient will soon begin to integrate the Omnyx™ proprietary software platform into its current laboratory. By combining the advanced molecular analysis of Clarient with Omnyx’s software, the pathology community will have a data-rich pool of imaging enhancing the collaboration and gaining insights for more individualized cancer therapy.

Despite their efforts in analyzing these deadly diseases, pathologists are just beginning to benefit from the use of digital solutions. Typically, the field has relied on a microscope and shipping glass slides to get a second opinion. New findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)[vii] indicate that the accuracy of the pathologic interpretation of breast biopsies is inadequately understood. The result of this goes beyond just breast cancer misdiagnoses – studies show a 10 percent error rate in pathology is not uncommon.[ii-v]

“The clinical reality is that fighting cancer begins with an accurate diagnosis,” said Kenneth J. Bloom, MD, chief medical officer of Clarient. “Cancer diagnosis and treatment is most effective as it becomes more personalized – and that means the role of the pathologist is crucial. By teaming up with Omnyx, we are helping to ensure that regardless of location or the size of the pathology lab in your hospital, a pathologist has a network that can discuss and help them identify the characteristics of a tumor, and offer more personalized diagnoses and treatments.”

Studies show a second opinion or collaborating with the care team has the potential to improve diagnosis and treatment for nearly one in 10 patients.[viii], [ix] Working together, Omnyx and Clarient will create a central resource of diagnostic technologies, including molecular signatures, bio-markers and precision analytics, so pathologists can help better identify trends and collaborate with one another to compare readings.

“As pathologists take on greater workloads, the emerging field of digital pathology allows them to review cases jointly, more quickly and more accurately thanks to collaborative input from peers across the globe,” said Mamar Gelaye, CEO of Omnyx. “Our Clarient and Omnyx alliance will provide pathologists with state-of-the art testing and diagnostic services to bring digital solutions as a mainstream offering in the healthcare world.”

While digital pathology is a solution growing in popularity, the field continues to face challenges with greater volumes of cancer testing and a shortage in the workforce to process them. Clarient and Omnyx will work together to help advance the industry, focusing on developing new solutions, analytics and infrastructure which help pathologists more easily and accurately diagnose patients and offer more individualized therapeutic treatment plans.

About GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services to meet the demand for increased access, enhanced quality and more affordable healthcare around the world. GE (NYSE: GE) works on things that matter – great people and technologies taking on tough challenges. From medical imaging, software & IT, patient monitoring and diagnostics to drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies and performance improvement solutions, GE Healthcare helps medical professionals deliver great healthcare to their patients. www.gehealthcare.com

About Omnyx 

Omnyx, LLC is a joint venture of GE Healthcare and UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) with locations in Pittsburgh, PA and Piscataway, NJ. The company has developed the OmnyxTM IDP solution allowing pathology departments worldwide to move to an all-digital workflow. Their products include image acquisition devices, workflow software, and transformation consulting. 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. OmnyxTM products are for in vitro diagnostic use for specific clinical applications, and are intended for research use only on other applications. For more information, go to: omnyx.com.

About Clarient Diagnostic Services, Inc.

Clarient Diagnostic Services, Inc. is a leading provider of comprehensive, cancer–diagnostic laboratory services. With its advanced technologies, Clarient is able to provide pathologists and oncologists with more accurate and detailed information to better characterize and assess cancer, which can lead to more accurate diagnoses and more effective treatment. In addition, Clarient’s services are finding more efficient ways to reduce the cost as well as accelerating the drug development process to identify and develop treating pharmaceuticals that can result in better outcomes for patients.

From its state-of-the-art diagnostic laboratory to its Internet-based PATHSiTE®, Clarient delivers advanced oncology diagnostic services to pathologists, oncologists, hospitals and biopharmaceutical companies throughout the U.S. Clarient also is developing proprietary companion diagnostic tests for therapeutics in breast, prostate, lung and colon cancers, as well as leukemia/lymphoma.

Clarient is improving the lives of those affected by cancer by bringing clarity to a complex disease. For more information visit http://www.clarient.com.

[i] World Health Organization. www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs297/en/. Accessed November 2014.

[ii] Hamady ZZ, et al. Surgical pathological second opinion in thyroid malignancy: impact on patients’ management and prognosis. Eur J Surg Oncol. 2005 Feb;31(1):74-7.

[iii] Coblentz TR, et al. Impact of second opinion pathology in the definitive management of patients with bladder carcinoma. Cancer. 2001 Apr 1;91(7):1284-90.

[iv] Staradub VL, et al. Changes in breast cancer therapy because of pathology second opinions. Ann Surg Oncol. 2002 Dec;9(10):982-7.

[v] Nguyen PL, et al. The impact of pathology review on treatment recommendations for patients with adenocarcinoma of the prostate. Urol Oncol. 2004 Jul-Aug;22(4):295-9.

[vi] www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs297/en/. Accessed July 2014

[vii] Elmore JG et al. Diagnostic Concordance Among Pathologists Interpreting Breast Biopsies Specimen. JAMA. Published 17 March 2015.

[viii] Newman EA, Guest AB, Helvie MA, et al. Changes in surgical management resulting from case review at a breast cancer multidisciplinary tumor board. Cancer. 2006;107:2346–2351.

[ix] Romanoff, et al. Breast Pathology Review: Does It Make a Difference? Annals of Surgical Oncology. Published 24 May 2014.