GE HealthCare to acquire AI ultrasound guidance company Caption Health

GE HealthCare introduced Thursday it had signed an settlement to amass Caption Health, maker of AI-enabled ultrasound steerage software program. 

The deal marks the newly impartial firm’s second acquisition announcement because it completed its spinoff a month in the past. Shortly after the newly spun-off GE HealthCare debuted on Nasdaq, the corporate revealed it had entered into an agreement to buy French company IMACTIS, developer of computed tomography (CT) interventional steerage expertise.

GE HealthCare is pitching the most recent deliberate acquisition as a option to increase entry to ultrasounds that would catch early indicators of ailments like coronary heart failure, as extra healthcare professionals might use the instrument in several care settings.

The corporate plans to fund the acquisition with money available and proceed to function Caption Care, the service providing that trains technicians with Caption expertise to supply echocardiograms on at-risk sufferers.

“Guiding ultrasound customers throughout examinations with the assistance of AI is of rising significance, particularly as we attain a broader set of healthcare professionals. Caption Well being’s AI purposes assist allow dependable, constant ultrasound examinations to ship extra exact diagnoses, improved remedy decision-making and in the end improved affected person outcomes,” Roland Rott, president and CEO of ultrasound at GE HealthCare, mentioned in an announcement. “This tuck-in acquisition will assist increase reasonably priced entry to ultrasound imaging to novice customers and is aligned with a broader shift to precision care globally.”

THE LARGER TREND

Based in 2013, Caption Well being raised $53 million in Series B funding in 2020. Its steerage instrument received FDA De Novo clearance earlier that yr.

On the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Convention in January, GE HealthCare CEO Peter Arduini mentioned embedding AI into its merchandise would change into rather more widespread within the subsequent few years. He additionally famous mergers and acquisitions will play “an vital half for us over time.”

Throughout an earnings name, he added the newly impartial firm was searching for M&A alternatives the place it might purchase expertise in fast-growing areas that would increase the breadth of capabilities.