GE Healthcare completes Orbotech Medical acquisition

GE HealthcareFeb 21 2011

GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), announced that it has completed the acquisition of the assets of Orbotech Medical Solutions Ltd. (OMS), a subsidiary of Orbotech Ltd. (Orbotech), and a manufacturer of cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) detectors used in GE Healthcare's innovative Alcyone nuclear medicine technology.

"We're pleased to announce that through the acquisition of OMS, we have passed an important milestone in the growth of GE Healthcare's Nuclear Medicine business," said Nathan Hermony, general manager Nuclear Medicine for GE Healthcare. "Our ability to manufacture CZT, a key component of GE Healthcare's Alcyone technology, will help clinicians around the world provide patients with faster and more comfortable examinations at lower dose, improve workflow while maintaining image quality. We've entered a new frontier of possibilities in nuclear medicine as we CZT technology not only in cardiac exams, but apply it to other critical areas such the early detection of breast cancer."

Representing a major development in nuclear medicine technology, GE Healthcare's Alcyone technology combines CZT detectors, focused pin-hole collimation, 3D reconstruction, and stationary data acquisition to reduce acquisition time and dose, improve workflow while maintaining image quality. Alcyone technology enables views of cardiac anatomy and functionality with greater clarity and speed, resulting in scan times as short as three minutes or up to a four-fold reduction in dose.

GE Healthcare recently announced FDA clearance of the use of CZT technology in assessment and early detection of breast cancer in women who are at high risk for the disease. The Discovery NM750b Molecular Breast Imaging (MBI) system utilizes a small Field of View CZT gamma camera dedicated to breast imaging. The innovation of the MBI technology is the use of CZT to replace the standard Sodium Iodine detectors routinely used for gamma cameras, in a dedicated breast and small organ device. This technology is intended to improve early detection of breast cancer, especially in women who are less likely to benefit from conventional mammography, as in cases of dense breast where imaging results may be inconclusive.