GE HealthCare and Mass General Brigham Collaborate to Explore Generative AI for Personalized Radiation Therapy
GE HealthCare has announced a new collaboration with a research team at Mass General Brigham to explore how generative artificial intelligence (AI) could help radiation oncology teams quickly access and interpret information involved in planning and delivering cancer treatment, which is often spread across various systems. The teams aim to develop a generative AI tool that could be integrated into Intelligent Radiation Therapy (iRT), GE HealthCare’s AI-supported software solution for radiation therapy workflow management designed to connect tools, coordinate workflows, and reduce manual handoffs.
Nearly 60% of people with cancer receive radiation therapy, yet the process of planning and preparing treatment has historically been fragmented. The length and complexity of treatment, combined with the number of care teams typically involved, mean radiation oncology teams must work across multiple systems and information sources that rarely connect. Workflows can be highly manual and variable, with a simple task like importing treatment data taking up to 17 manual steps, and one study of more than 500 radiation oncology cases identifying more than 44 variations in the treatment-planning workflow. This variability is driven in part by the unstructured nature of information clinicians work with, such as clinical notes and reports, making it harder for care teams to quickly find and synthesize what they need.
To address these challenges, teams from Mass General Brigham and GE HealthCare will explore developing a generative AI tool that could bring together structured clinical data and unstructured information, including clinical notes, images, and treatment plans, allowing radiation oncology teams to ask questions and surface relevant information quickly about a patient’s treatment journey. The tool could provide a summarized view to help clinicians navigate complex treatment data and inform care decisions. Insights from the research could ultimately inform future iRT workflow capabilities across MR, CT, and theranostics.
The collaboration builds on a history of innovation between GE HealthCare and Massachusetts General Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, where software technology developed at the hospital became a component of GE HealthCare’s iRT solution. Research found the technology helped reduce the time from patient intake to the start of treatment from as long as 30 days down to eight days by connecting and orchestrating fragmented workflows.
John Wolfgang, PhD, a principal investigator on the research and clinical physicist in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Mass General Brigham, said the original work demonstrated how technology can remove barriers in care delivery and help clinicians focus more of their time on patients while accelerating time to treatment. Wolfgang noted that the team is excited to advance this work to explore how AI could further support radiation oncology care teams by making complex treatment information easier to access, understand, and act on.
Sam Kandala, General Manager of Therapy Guidance at GE HealthCare, said the iRT solution began by solving a very real clinical problem, making a complex and fragmented radiation therapy process simpler and more efficient. Kandala noted that the new collaboration gives the company an opportunity to build on that foundation and explore how AI could help clinicians not only work more efficiently but also make better use of the information available to them as they personalize treatment for each patient. Hospitals worldwide are implementing iRT to manage their radiation therapy and theranostics workflows, improving efficiency and helping coordinate care across the treatment pathway.
