The research and development agreement between the University of Debrecen and GE HealthCare was signed in May 2023 by Zoltán Szilvássy, Rector, Zoltán Bács, Chancellor, Sampath Kandala, General Manager of Oncology Imaging Modality at GE HealthCare, and Lehel Ferenczi, Sr Director of Data and Analytics at GE HealthCare. Since then, the teams at the Oncoradiology Clinic have completed the planned testing and evaluation tasks, along with the assigned analyses by the end of 2023. The results were presented to both the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) and the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).
Based on the excellent experiences, the leaders of the University and the Company decided to continue the collaboration. According to Rector, Zoltán Szilvássy the University of Debrecen considers healthcare a strategic area, therefore it is of paramount importance to collaborate with key industry players to ensure efficient patient care, high-quality education, and research activities.
"Collaborations like this provide the university the opportunity to work together with industry players, develop new, innovative procedures and methodologies, and serve as an excellent occasion to get our clinical work validated at an international level," said Zoltán Szilvássy.
"GE HealthCare provides innovative solutions to enhance the entire radiation therapy workflow for both clinicians and cancer patients. Clinical collaborations form the foundation of our R&D efforts, and we are pleased to strengthen our partnership with the University of Debrecen, Hungary today on the validation of the Intelligent Radiation Therapy (iRT) solution in Europe. iRT is designed to enable seamless interoperability, connectivity, and efficiency across multi-vendor systems throughout the radiation oncology care continuum."added Ben Newton, General Manager of Oncology at GE HealthCare.
Lehel Ferenczi, GE HealthCare's Sr. Director of Data and Analytics, added: "The Department of Oncoradiology at the University of Debrecen Clinical Center in Hungary possesses outstanding, cutting-edge equipment and expert capacity, supporting our research and development efforts to enhance the efficiency of radiation therapy. We are excited to advance our collaboration on software validation, gaining invaluable feedback on its accurate and reliable performance in a clinical environment. The Clinical Center will also provide an opportunity to showcase iRT—Intelligent Radiation Therapy—and its multi-vendor data orchestration capabilities."
Successful testing was completed at the Oncoradiology Clinic, during which they participated in the product development process of an artificial intelligence (AI)-based cancer patient management software initiated by GE HealthCare. One key component of the first phase was addressing and solving clinical, technical, and technological challenges related to early product development.
"The University of Debrecen Clinical Center, as well as the Oncoradiology Clinic, provide excellent conditions for the collaboration with thier high-quality therapeutic services, internationally renowned team of professionals, and modern infrastructure, all contributing to further advancements in oncology care. The most important goal is that the more patients could be cured in the shortest possible time by using world-class technology" emphasized Professor Zoltán Szabó, President of the Clinical Center.
The first phase of the collaboration, which began last year, has successfully concluded. In the current phase, the clinic is shaping and testing the first live version of the IRT system in Europe.
"The Oncoradiology Clinic at the University of Debrecen Clinical Center has been assigned higher-level research and development tasks in this phase. While the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston is shaping and testing the first live version of the IRT system in the United States, our clinic is doing the same in Europe. These current tasks include integrating, testing, and process development within the clinic's established procedures, and we are also a Show Site for iRT in Europe. The research and development agreement is planned with an annual review, intensive consultation, and result evaluation," explained Árpád Kovács, Director of the Oncoradiology Clinic at the University of Debrecen Clinical Center.
Ideally, the methodology of the Oncoradiology Clinic, which applies innovative, high-level, standardized, and safe patient care protocols, could contribute to the success of a global company’s product and serve the high-quality cancer therapy of patients worldwide.
The use of the Intelligent Radiation Therapy (iRT) application could shorten treatment times, facilitate more accurate tumor targeting, and minimize the damage to surrounding healthy tissues.
The latest results were recently presented at the 2024 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) conference in Washington.
