Saving time, money while maintaining high patient care standards

With any technological product, waste reduction presents a challenge. Rapid advancements can be highly beneficial to consumers, but in many cases, end users are left with an obsolete device to dispose of and a new one to purchase, to the detriment of the environment and their wallets.

In manufacturing, this gets expensive fast, but forgoing the latest technological upgrades comes at a high cost to competitiveness. With medical devices, it can also come at a cost to patient well-being. Knowing this, GE HealthCare developed an upgrade program for its magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems to reduce machine downtime and environmental impact.

“We design a system for multiple decades of use,” says Chinmoy Goswami, senior director for systems and service engineering in GE HealthCare’s MR unit. “At the same time, we understand within that time frame, there are a lot of upgraded capabilities available – more so nowadays, with AI-enabled hardware and software.”

The upgrade program offers clients hardware and software options, centered around the magnet at the heart of an MRI machine. That’s the costliest component to replace, financially and ecologically – and because it can function well for more than 30 years, it rarely requires replacement. The hardware and software supporting it, however, are another story.

Building around a magnetic center

MRI machines are complex setups with multiple components. Goswami describes GE HealthCare’s upgrade offering as a continuum, with several options for customers depending on their needs. These can be software-based, up to and including new software kits and compute platforms, or hardware-based, involving many complex components such as gradient coils, radiofrequency (RF) coils, magnet enclosures, and patient handling systems.

“By modernizing these critical components or the subsystems, while retaining one of the most integral parts of the system – the magnet – we offer a very cost-effective bridge to current technology standards, enhancing clinical performance without the need for full system replacement,” Goswami says.

These clinical performance improvements reflect in ways including better diagnostics and greater levels of patient comfort. A software upgrade to the latest version may result in higher image quality and reduced scan time. A hardware upgrade could involve improved functionality and updated appearance, or it could be a complete overhaul from a narrow-bore to a wide-bore system.

Whatever the case, the magnet remains, and the sustainability benefits aren’t negligible. According to GE HealthCare, reusing an existing magnet can avoid approximately 100 tons of CO2 emissions compared to the production and transportation resources required for the large, heavy magnets to be installed.

Additionally, even a full system upgrade is quicker and less expensive than magnet replacement. The latter requires opening the sealed scan room to access and remove the magnet before installing a new one, a difficult and time-consuming process. For healthcare facilities typically booking dozens of scan patients per day, this is a lot of downtime – and for the patients, it’s that much more delay in getting answers and treatment.

Collaboration on multiple levels

GE HealthCare has 43 sites within 17 countries and works with a multinational network of vendors and suppliers to develop a manufacturing strategy to meet customers’ needs as quickly as possible. The company’s manufacturing operations, including capabilities such as CNC machining, additive manufacturing (AM), winding, and others, are located in-house. GE HealthCare’s diversity of manufacturing technologies is vital to producing the range of components comprising MRI machines. AM has been transformative for certain parts which, as Goswami puts it, “weren’t very kind to existing manufacturing processes” – highly complex parts, for example, or assemblies of multiple components – while vacuum impregnation may be used for electronics.

An MRI machine is a highly complex piece of equipment with many moving parts, and the workflow of upgrading it mirrors this. The moving parts, in this case, include design, manufacturing, logistics, and installation, each with challenges depending on the original piece of equipment and the type and extent of the upgrade. To circumvent potential errors that could easily occur across such a network, GE HealthCare prioritizes collaboration, with co-located, cross-functional teams in its engineering and production facilities working together across each stage.

Silos are an ongoing issue in medtech, and while industry professionals have differing opinions on how best to break through them, most agree lack of cohesion and communication throughout the development cycle is highly detrimental to production timelines, costs, and sometimes safety and credibility. GE HealthCare’s collaborative model considers every stage from the beginning, ensuring the pieces will fit together before they start.

“When we design it, we look at how we’re going to manufacture it, ship it, install it, and turn it over to the customer,” Goswami says. “Everything comes together as one. When we deliver an upgraded system, it’s not just a technical enhancement, it’s a revitalized MR system, extending its value and impacting clinical work.”

Pushing back against obsolescence

Technology obsolescence is an issue across industries, with much of it planned by manufacturers to create new sales – think of how often you have to replace your smartphone. Hardware building blocks of a medical device undergo obsolescence like any electronics industry,but sometimes the speed at which equipment becomes outdated is merely because medtech developments are advancing rapidly and healthcare facilities don’t have the time or money to constantly replace their technology.

It’s particularly important in healthcare to keep devices updated for the best possible patient care as well as competitiveness – yet in an industry where costs are already high and patients often wait months for appointments, this presents significant cost and time challenges. GE HealthCare’s upgrade program offers an option involving much lower downtime than replacing a magnet or an entire system, while allowing healthcare facilities to access the most up-to-date technology.

“The upgrade path is our way of making sure that our patients and our customers have access to the latest technology and clinical capabilities,” Goswami says. “It’s such a beneficial program across the board, whether in terms of uptime and financial impact for the customer, logistics – not to mention the sustainability part of it, it has a huge impact.”