April 28, 2025 – GE HealthCare (Nasdaq: GEHC), a leading medical technology innovator, and St. Luke’s University Health Network of Bethlehem, Pa., a nationally recognized nonprofit healthcare network, announced that St. Luke’s has made a $30+ million investment in leading-edge Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technology and service from GE HealthCare. The investment is intended to expand patient access to advanced imaging that can help to enhance image quality while reducing scan times and patient discomfort.
“This is a major win for our patients and our community,” St. Luke’s Radiology Chairman Dr. Robert Fournier said. “Medical specialties such as orthopedics, cardiology and oncology rely on imaging for diagnosis and treatment planning. At St. Luke’s, we are committed to providing the best imaging technology because we understand its vital role in modern medicine.”
This latest MRI investment follows previous commitments to GE HealthCare’s imaging solutions, including a $30 million investment in CT technology in 2023 and an $11 million investment in ultrasound technology in 2020.
“We are pleased to build upon our more than 30-year relationship with St. Luke’s to upgrade their MR fleet, including adding artificial intelligence technology,” said Catherine Estrampes, President and CEO, U.S. and Canada at GE HealthCare. “We are proud to work with St. Luke’s to enable greater precision, efficiency, and access to advanced technology for their patients.”
Standardizing imaging technology across the Network can help to provide numerous advantages, including the capacity for improved operational efficiency, which ultimately expands patient access.
These new MRI systems can help to enhance the patient experience by reducing claustrophobia with wider scanners and also come equipped with Artificial Intelligence (AI), which can help to significantly improve both the quality and speed of MRI scans.
Scan times may be reduced by up to 83% with GE HealthCare’s Sonic DL AI application—potentially capturing an image of the heart in as little as a single heartbeat—while helping to optimize the image quality.
St. Luke’s will be one of the first network health systems in the United States to implement Intelligent™ Radiation Therapy (iRT) for MR, a software solution that can help to improve and accelerate the radiation oncology care pathway. This software allows more precise radiation therapy planning and can help to enable a shorter timeline to treatment over conventional CT for certain types of cancers.
“In addition to the tremendous advantages this GE HealthCare technology offers our health system,” Dr. Fournier added, “it presents an invaluable educational opportunity for our physicians in residency and fellowship training programs. They’ll gain hands-on experience with the latest AI-driven imaging technology, placing them at the forefront of next-generation medicine and allowing them to witness firsthand how innovation improves patient care and outcomes.”
About St. Luke’s
Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 20,000 employees providing services at 15 campuses and 350+ outpatient sites. With annual net revenue of $4 billion, the Network’s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke’s hospitals operate the largest network of trauma centers in Pennsylvania, with the Bethlehem Campus being home to St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital.
Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania. In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley’s first and only four-year medical school campus. It also operates the nation’s oldest School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 52 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with more than 500 residents and fellows. In 2022, St. Luke’s, a member of the Children’s Hospital Association, established the Lehigh Valley’s first and only free-standing facility dedicated entirely to kids.
SLUHN is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare’s five-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency, and patient satisfaction. St. Luke’s is a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital. The Network’s flagship University Hospital has earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from Fortune/PINC AI 10 years in a row, including in 2021 when it was identified as THE #1 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY. In 2021, St. Luke’s was also identified as one of the 15 Top Health Systems nationally. Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.
About GE HealthCare Technologies Inc.
GE HealthCare is a trusted partner and leading global healthcare solutions provider, innovating medical technology, pharmaceutical diagnostics, and integrated, cloud-first AI-enabled solutions, services and data analytics. We aim to make hospitals and health systems more efficient, clinicians more effective, therapies more precise, and patients healthier and happier. Serving patients and providers for more than 125 years, GE HealthCare is advancing personalized, connected and compassionate care, while simplifying the patient’s journey across care pathways. Together, our Imaging, Advanced Visualization Solutions, Patient Care Solutions and Pharmaceutical Diagnostics businesses help improve patient care from screening and diagnosis to therapy and monitoring. We are a $19.7 billion business with approximately 53,000 colleagues working to create a world where healthcare has no limits.
GE HealthCare is proud to be among 2025 Fortune World’s Most Admired Companies™.
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Sam Kennedy
