GE Healthcare has teamed up with an Istanbul-based opinion leader in healthcare digitalisation to accelerate artificial intelligence (AI) development in software development in Turkey.

Hakki Muammer Karakas, who is the Coordinator for the Istanbul Provincial Health Directorate Radiology Services, as well as faculty member of the University of Health Sciences, will reportedly lead the research under the newly established company, CUREA. Using GE Healthcare’s Edison Health Services, Karakas and his wider research and development (R&D) team will in the first instance collaborate to develop AI-based applications focused on two areas: the “detection, categorisation and severity grading of COVID-19 to diagnose and treat patients,” and the “automatic detection and classification of breast lesions through contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (CESM).” 

CUREA’s R&D team will comprise clinicians, radiologists, scientists, senior data scientists, and software developers, GE Healthcare said in a statement.

“Leveraging the power of GE Healthcare’s Edison Health Services, Turkish clinical scientists, data scientists and software developers will be able to harness our immense datasets to create AI-driven applications that can add significant value to the diagnosis and treatment of diseases in Turkey,” said Karakas. “This is an organic tie-up that has the potential not only to establish Istanbul as a global site for AI development in healthcare, but the ability to scale up intelligent clinical analysis and operational management solutions and make them available to radiologists and healthcare professionals around the world.”

THE LARGER CONTEXT

In its statement, GE Healthcare elaborated that in order for patients to benefit from personalised medicine, new AI-based tools are required to “aggregate, standardize, and make sense of data quickly.”

It continued: “Advances in medical imaging constantly increase our knowledge of diseases and their treatments, creating a surge in the amount of data generated. 

“The development of AI applications in medical imaging requires access to large amounts of high-quality annotated data, advanced design visualisation capabilities and the ability to trace the development and learnings – which can be a challenge. 

“The collaboration between CUREA and GE Healthcare will leverage large-scale clinical and radiological data from the University of Health Sciences and using the AI-know how and capabilities of the research and development teams led by Prof. Dr. Karakas, work to accelerate the development of AI solutions and help structure an AI healthcare ecosystem in Turkey.”

ON THE RECORD

Nael Dabbagh, General Manager of GE Healthcare in the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and Turkey commented: “This is an exciting collaboration that will gradually give Turkish start-ups, researchers and radiologists the opportunity to create AI applications in medical imaging that can dramatically enhance treatment and diagnosis of disease in Turkey and beyond.  

“It is also a significant step forward in establishing an ecosystem for AI development in healthcare for Turkey and the whole region, thanks to the leadership and vision of Prof. Dr. Karakas and his team.” 

GE Healthcare added that previous AI collaborations announced in Europe have focused on the management of liver cancer with AI characterisation tools; the diagnosis and prognosis of lung diseases; and the accuracy and personalisation of treatments for brain cancer or patient follow-up through imaging tools and multidisciplinary consultation meetings. 

Its recently launched EMEA Edison Accelerator – a start-up healthcare accelerator programme in Europe, the Middle East and Africa – aims to unite healthcare providers interested in leading in innovation in healthcare.