GE Healthcare introduces new Invenia Automated Breast Ultrasound System at RSNA 2013

GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), introduced today the new Invenia Automated Breast Ultrasound System (ABUS) at the 2013 Radiological Society of North America (#RSNA13) annual meeting. ABUS is used to answer the need of detecting additional cancer in women where mammography alone may be insufficient due to their greater breast density. Featuring new automated compression tools for enhanced workflow and ergonomics, the automated breast ultrasound system provides physicians a new way to look at dense breast tissue that can allow them to improve breast cancer detection by up to 35.7 percent over mammography alone.

The new Invenia ABUS features advanced automation technology and is designed for reproducibility, ease of use and both patient and operator comfort. With new tools like Compression Assist and Reverse Curve, healthcare providers can quickly and comfortably capture whole breast, 3D volumes of clinical images in less time compared to previous versions of the technology.

"Our commitment to ABUS technology and making it more clinically robust and available to more healthcare providers and patients around the world is a reflection of the company's efforts in tackling breast cancer and our overall $1 billion investment to advance oncology solutions by 2016," said Anders Wold, president and CEO of GE's Ultrasound business. "The use of ultrasound technology for breast cancer screening is proving to be a valuable asset for healthcare providers in the diagnosis and care provided to patients with dense breasts."

Dense breast tissue is a major risk factor for breast cancer and not only increases the risk of breast cancer up to four to six times, but also makes cancer more difficult to detect using mammography, according to multiple large studies. One study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed mammography sensitivity is reduced by 36 to 38 percent in women with dense breasts, as density masks the appearance of tumors (Boyd, et al, NEJM 2007:356:227-36M).

To address this limitation with mammography, U-Systems (a GE Healthcare company) introduced the somo•v^TM ABUS to the marketplace in September 2012 to provide healthcare providers an FDA-approved screening option for patients with dense breasts. Since the commercialization and GE's acquisition of U-Systems, the company has continued to invest resources to determine how to further expand the reach of ultrasound technology to help improve breast care.

GE is the sole manufacturer with an FDA-approved ultrasound system for breast cancer screening purposes.

SOURCE GE Healthcare