Omnyx: Marking A New Dawn In Pathology

For many of us, the mention of a pathologistdefine inevitably brings to mind a person in a white coat bending over a microscope, glass slides in hand. However, that is soon to be passé. For Omnyx, a collaborative venture of GE Healthcare and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center seeks to develop and sell advanced digital imaging systems for pathologists.

For more than a decade, both GE Healthcare and UPMC have individually played important roles in transforming the practice of radiology from hard-copy film to digitized images. Now the two have come together to merge their clinical and technological expertise to bring about radical changes in the field of pathology.

Cutting edge technology has played a vital part in enhancing testing procedures. Advancing the technology for digitizing pathological images is one area of work. The current digital pathology technology requires about 3 to 5 minutes to scan a single glass slide's image. According to GE Healthcare sources, Omnyx developments will reduce the scanning time of each slide to 15 or 30 seconds.

Also, by digitizing pathology images, glass slides would no longer need to be transported for secondary consultations. If the 1.5 billion glass pathology slides that pathologists look at every year in the U.S are digitized, then that will help pathologists making more accurate and faster diagnoses, believes Mr. Cartwright.

However, not all are taking this as enthusiastically. Many pathologists are of the opinion that since a pathologistdefine, on an average, spends only about 30 seconds looking at a specimen under the microscope, using scanning processes that take 6-10 times longer to digitize an image is not of much significance.

Both parties are, however, investing $20 million each in the new company.
The new company is planning to hire 60 employees this year who would be drawn from a pool of talent both from GE and UPMC. Omnyx will also receive $180,000 from the state of Pennsylvania to support the creation of at least 40 high-technology jobs over the next three years.

Dan Drawbaugh, CIO of UPMC and one of two UPMC officials who are also part of the four-member executive board heading Omnyx has stated it would be a “natural marriage” between two “tech-savvy” organizations, “one with best-in-class clinical experience, and the other with technology expertise globally”.

The other two board members are GE executives, one of whom is Gene Cartwright, who had joined GE Healthcare a couple of years ago. With the experience of a 25-year career at the lab company Abbott Diagnostics behind him, Mr. Cartwright will head Omnyx as its CEO.

With significant contributions to the field of pathological science, UPMC and GE today have joined hands to possibly usher in major, if not radical, changes in this field. According to Cartwright, it would also probably help transform the way pathologists work and collaborate bring in "the next 'ology'".

The new company is slated to be headquartered in Pittsburgh, with Piscataway, N.J. and Albany, N.Y. as the locations for its development offices.