GE Healthcare pledged $32.9 million over the next 10 years for a state-of-the-art imaging research facility at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health on Thursday.
Department of Radiology Chair Tom Grist said the grant is simply a result of a long-standing, trusting relationship that the UWSMPH has shared with GE for the past two decades.
“This is the next phase of our relationship with GE,” Grist said, “There are a lot of things that this grant will give us besides money.”
Grist said the UWSMPH will use money from the grant to buy new and advanced equipment as well as fund and support research projects and encourage further scientific research and imaging techniques.
Grist also said one of the most dramatic improvements in the research facility involves the extensive development in the use of the MRI machine.
Grist said the grant will expand use of the MRI to include CT scanning. With it, they can use techniques to lower radiation doses in CT scans and improve diagnoses, he added.
Grist said their researchers will be able to develop the software required for specialists to explore and improve measurements of blood flow, liver tissue, brain activity and Alzheimer’s in the field of MRI research.
The grant will help the UWSMPH develop new ways to personalize medicine, Grist said.
Grist said graduate students can use MRIs and CTs instead of microscopes, and undergraduate students will be welcome to develop computer techniques and visualization skills as well.
“Everyone works hard to take ideas from the bench to the bedside. Now we can take new techniques and bring them to our patients,” Grist said.
Grist said the grant will also emphasize UW’s theme this year as the Year of Innovation.
Grist said the year is all about innovation because the university can improve human health through innovation and imaging so when GE incorporates inventions into products, patients and, ultimately, Wisconsin citizens will benefit.
UW School of Medicine Dean Robert Golden also agreed this fits perfectly with the theme of innovation for the year.
Golden said GE Healthcare and UW will be creating the most innovative imaging research facility in the world, which will lead to decades of innovation and discovery.
Golden said GE has a long-standing tradition of investing in programs and people in Wisconsin, where the corporation as deep roots, and there have been several succcessful partnerships between UW and GE in years past.
Golden said students and faculty of UW-Madison will also benefit from the partnership.
“They will have access to new technologies unlike anywhere else on the planet, which will greatly enhance the potential scope of their research,” he said.
