GE Healthcare completes acquisition of
Orbotech Medical Solutions
22 Feb 2011
GE Healthcare has completed the acquisition of Orbotech
Medical Solutions Ltd (OMS), a subsidiary of Israeli company Orbotech
Ltd and a manufacturer of cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) detectors used in
GE Healthcare’s Alcyone nuclear medicine technology.
Orbotech, whose main business is printed circuit board systems and
liquid crystal displays, agreed to the sale in October 2010 in a
deal worth up to US$14m and which ended legal disputes between the
companies.
“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.