US healthcare giant GE Healthcare has launched Versana Premier, the latest addition to its Versana family of ultrasound systems.
The company says that Versana Premier has been designed to meet the needs of healthcare professionals across clinical specialities and care areas including general practice, obstetrics and gynaecology (OBGYN), musculoskeletal (MSK) and cardiology.
Building on previous ultrasound systems in the Versana series, the latest version of Versana Premier offers automation and AI-enabled productivity tools, which the company said improve workflows and enhance clinical efficiency and accuracy.
Powered by GE Healthcare’s VisionBoost Architecture and featuring high-quality probes, and including the company’s XDclear technology, GE Healthcare claims the system offers higher image quality with faster speed compared with the former version released in 2018.
The system’s range of AI-based Whizz technologies enable users to optimise images in real time, with Whizz Color Flow able to adjust the colour display of ultrasound images to improve viewability. To aid in clinical decision-making, Whizz RenderLive and V-Live 2.0 enable Versana to perform 3D and 4D imaging to chart babies’ development.
In addition, the system’s Whizz Label technology automatically labels the liver, gallbladder and right kidney on ultrasound images during abdomen scans of the right upper quadrant (RUQ), mitigating the manual effort required in annotating the organs.
According to a GE Healthcare-sponsored study conducted in 2022, Versana’s Whizz clinical features resulted in 38% faster clinical workflows. Versana Premier received 510(k) clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2021.
Phil Rackliffe, president and CEO of ultrasound and image guided therapies at GE HealthCare said: “The rising demand for imaging has driven the increasing use of ultrasound in primary care. Ultrasound is emerging as a key tool in these clinical settings, enabling accelerated diagnoses and improving patient outcomes and satisfaction.
“Versana Premier is equipped with advanced automated workflow and productivity tools, including educational resources, that can support these clinicians who are often the frontline of disease identification and diagnosis for their patients.”
The launch of Versana Premier comes just weeks after GE Healthcare introduced its Venue point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) systems, including the Venue Sprint, a new tablet-based device.
According to GlobalData, the global ultrasound systems market was valued at around $6.4bn in 2023 and is forecast to reach a valuation of around $7.3bn by 2033.
