GE HealthCare and Medis Medical Imaging announced their collaboration aimed at helping advance precision care in the diagnosis and treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD). Together, the two companies will work to further the development and commercialization of Medis Quantitative Flow Ratio (Medis QFR), a non-invasive approach to the assessment of coronary physiology, as part of GE HealthCare?s interventional cardiology portfolio built around the Allia Platform. The collaboration seeks to provide access to emerging technologies, like Medis QFR, while also reducing complexity in the cath lab to improve the operating environment for clinicians.

Within the complex umbrella of cardiovascular disease, CAD is a type of heart disease that develops when the coronary arteries narrow and the heart cannot deliver enough oxygen-rich blood to the heart. The impact of this narrowing can ultimately result in angina (chest pain), which has been shown to double the risk of major cardiovascular events,1 as well as myocardial infarction (heart attack) or even death. In order to accurately diagnose suspected CAD, a significant percentage of patients can undergo invasive coronary angiography to help clinicians determine the severity of their disease.

Traditionally, a clinician will then visually interpret an angiogram to determine whether a patient requires treatment, such as a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), as well as determine where, or which lesion, to treat to restore blood flow. As part of GE HealthCare?s commitment to advancing precision care in interventional cardiology, the company?s collaboration with Medis Medical Imaging will bring Medis QFR to clinicians as an emerging, non-invasive, image-based diagnostic approach to the assessment of coronary artery physiology and the treatment of CAD. The benefits of QFR guidance are supported in a recent study that showed that a QFR-guided strategy of lesion selection for PCI improved two-year clinical outcomes, including reduction in myocardial infraction and ischemia-driven revascularization, when compared with standard angiography guidance alone.

Medis Medical Imaging has been developing innovative post-processing software for the quantification of cardiovascular images for thirty-five years. Medis? QFR is a proprietary solution that delivers image-based physiology of coronary obstructions based on angiography imaging analysis alone.

Interventional cardiologists can seamlessly adopt the solution into their clinical workflow to help them effectively and efficiently determine if a PCI is required to treat the patient or if treatment should be deferred for ongoing monitoring or other alternative treatment options. If treatment is needed, Medis? QFR technology can help clinicians select the ultimate lesion(s) for treatment and create the right treatment plan for a balloon or stent-based PCI procedure, while also helping the clinician evaluate the efficacy of that treatment.

This analysis can be performed in real time while the patient is on the table and results are displayed on the large display monitor in the cath lab .Innovative technologies like Medis QFR enhance GE HealthCare?s comprehensive portfolio of interventional cardiology solutions built around the Allia Platform designed to optimize workflows, unlock efficiencies, and drive better patient outcomes in the treatment of cardiovascular disease.