At its best, innovation in health care is not just about invention. It’s about partnership—to build bridges between academia and industry, discovery and application, people and purpose. Over more than three decades, GE HealthCare, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation have built one of the nation’s most productive research and product development collaborations. What began with a licensing agreement has evolved into a model for translating scientific breakthroughs into medical technologies that change lives.
This collaboration is not simply about sharing geography. It reflects a long-standing mutual commitment to advancing health care through applied research, early clinical evaluation and patient-centered design. In marking WARF’s centennial, we see an opportunity to reflect on what makes this collaboration effective, and what it can teach others.
At the core of this relationship is a simple but powerful idea: get the best tools into the hands of the brightest scientists early. GE HealthCare regularly works with UW-Madison researchers on the development of medical imaging technologies, giving UW and GEHC a unique opportunity to test and refine ideas before they reach commercial availability.
That early research has led to tangible clinical innovations. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) clinical applications and computed tomography (CT) protocols developed and optimized in the UW-Madison Department of Radiology are used in hospitals around the world. Clinicians benefit from tools that are more intuitive and efficient. Patients benefit from products that help clinicians reach faster diagnoses and more personalized care.
Read the full story here: https://www.warf.org/wisconsin-ingenuity/from-bench-to-bedside-how-warf-and-ge-healthcare-turn-ideas-into-impact/