GE HealthCare partners with outpatient imaging operator MedQuest

The companies will work together to deploy imaging solutions into ambulatory settings

The global diagnostic imaging services market size is projected to reach over $702 billion by 2027; as the demand for these services continues to grow, technological advancements are allowing them to move from inpatient care settings, such as hospitals or emergency rooms, to ambulatory settings, meaning medical services performed on an outpatient basis, without needing to be admitted.

This is helping to alleviate some of the burden on those care settings, making them more efficient by allowing them to focus on more urgent needs, while also expanding access to care for patients.

MedQuest Associates is an owner, operator, and manager of outpatient diagnostic imaging facilities. The company, with a network of over 50 imaging centers under management, partners with hospitals and health systems, providing them with a turnkey outpatient imaging center joint venture and management.

Now the company has announced a three-year collaboration with GE HealthCare that will allow it to advance its own technology by combining digital tools and technologies from GE HealthCare with infrastructure and resources from MedQuest; those technologies from GE include AIR Recon DL, AIR Touch Technology, Imaging Protocol Manager, Smart Subscription and Digital tools with Imaging 360. 

The idea is to help deploy emerging imaging solutions, including solutions to support theranostics, into the ambulatory setting; theranostics is an approach to treating cancer that use both diagnosis and therapy tools as part of the treatment. 

The combination of GE and MedQuest technologies will allow clinicians to make faster and more informed decisions through the use of intelligent data and smart devices. The goal is to also improve radiology workflows and ease workloads for care teams.

Founded in 1993, MedQuest provides services to hospitals and health systems, including daily operations management, marketing, billing and collections, center development and all financial and other support functions. The company's partners include Novant Health, North Mississippi Health Services, and University of Maryland Charles Regional Medical Center.

“Our commitment to customer-centric care is at the center of everything we do. Building upon our more than 25-year history as a leader in outpatient imaging, our partnership with GE HealthCare will position us at the forefront of innovative care delivery and product line development, enhancing the level of care for our patients and health system partners," MedQuest CEO Jason Howard said in a statement.

This is not the first partnership GE Healthcare has made around medical imaging: in 2022, GE Healthcare and MediView teamed up to combine AR and medical imaging, co-developing a new solution that will also allow for remote collaboration. 

In September 2023, GE Healthcare partnered with the Mayo Clinic on a strategic healthcare collaboration for research and product development programs on medical imaging and theranostics, combining clinical research, product development, application of new clinical uses and techniques, and increased access for patients, with the ultimate goal of providing technology so clinicians can more accurately diagnose and treat medical conditions.

(Image source: mqimaging.com)