Anne Catrine Martinsen

Photo: Elisabeth Kirkeng Andersen

“The equipment we develop and evaluate will benefit all kinds of patients, from those being seen at the accident and emergency department to those admitted to specialist hospitals with advanced conditions,” says Anne Catrine Trægde Martinsen.

Martinsen is associate professor of physics at the University of Oslo and is head of the Department of Diagnostic Physics at Oslo University Hospital. She is also the initiator, prime mover and centre leader of Oslo ImTECH.

Martinsen had the idea for the centre in 2016, and it was realised at the centre’s grand opening in March 2018 by Bjørn Erikstein, CEO of Oslo University Hospital.

“I got the idea because I know from previous industry collaborations that it’s a long way from us at the hospitals who use diagnostic imaging equipment such as CT and MR machines, to the people who make the equipment in the supplier industry,” says Martinsen.

“At the same time, technology is developing extremely quickly, so what was impossible yesterday will be outdated tomorrow. For this reason, the hospitals don’t always manage to keep up, and they are unable to offer the newest and best equipment to their patients,” she explains.

Martinsen therefore believes that the solution is for the technologist to function as a link between the hospital and equipment suppliers, and this concept forms the basis of ImTECH.

Partnership agreement with GE Healthcare

The main cooperation agreement with GE Healthcare is a real feather in the new centre’s cap.

The business is at the international forefront of the development and production of advanced diagnostic imaging equipment and only enters into cooperation agreements with carefully selected partners.

“GE Healthcare is planning to use us as its European test location. They want to test and evaluate new software and hardware solutions before they become available in the European market,” says Martinsen.

In addition to GE, nine other commercial players have signed cooperation agreements with the centre, as well as five academic institutions.

Martinsen is determined that the centre will play an important role in the Norwegian supplier industry.

“Norwegian industry partners will be able to test and develop new solutions in an international environment with students, research fellows and researchers from national and international academic institutions and international industry players,” says Martinsen.

She explains that the work is already well under way and that GE Healthcare’s development team and other industry partners have been in Oslo to work alongside the staff at ImTECH and discuss tests and results.

Ongoing revolution

The vision behind ImTECH is to shape the future of radiology. Radiology is the medical field that uses different imaging techniques to diagnose and treat illness. The techniques include CT, MR and PET (see the fact box for more information).

“State-of-the-art equipment is essential if the centre is to live up to this vision. Technological development is taking place so rapidly that the equipment becomes quickly outdated. This is why we have planned a model where we invite both big and small partners, national and international, and public sector and commercial, who all share this vision and work to develop the solutions we will use going forward,” says Martinsen.

CT, MR and PET-MR are used to identify and monitor illness and evaluate the effect of both established treatment and new treatments undergoing clinical trials.

Artificial intelligence and big data are on a course to revolutionise the field of radiology as they have so many other industries. Mathias Goyen is Chief Medical Officer Europe of GE Healthcare. Goyen was one of the main keynote speakers at the annual Cutting Edge research and technology festival. Here, he stated that:

“Technology and medical knowledge are merging in personalised medicine, which is why radiologists who master artificial intelligence will replace radiologists who don’t by 2025.”

The world is getting in touch

When asked to sum up 2018, Martinsen’s brief response was ‘Fantastic,’ and the long answer was:

“So much has happened since the opening in March and we have involved several new partners, and not least players that have funds and that want to work with us because of our expertise. We’ve also received a number of enquiries from outside the environment who want us to come and present ourselves and what we can offer,” says Martinsen.

Not least, the centre’s staff have also delivered the goods in terms of research, with big presentations and posters at the world’s biggest radiology conference in the USA, more articles in the making, and they have engaged more research fellows.

“We are in a positive spiral now. Environments in the USA and Europe have contacted us because we’re now on the map and they’ve heard of us. The cooperation agreement with GE Healthcare plays a huge role here, of course, since they do not enter into collaborations with many centres on a global basis,” says Martinsen.

When she or her colleagues participate in testing methods before they go on the market as a product, they are also the first in the world to publish this research. This generates attention and advances the centre’s spearhead position.

Joining forces at Montebello

Today, the centre is up and running in borrowed premises at Ullevål Hospital as part of Oslo University Hospital. As soon as Oslo Cancer Cluster Innovation Park has been extended following construction phase two, ImTECH will physically join the park at Montebello next to the Radium Hospital and the Institute for Cancer Research.

“The goal is to equip the centre with CT, MR and PET-MR in the new premises to be built during the extension of Oslo Cancer Cluster Innovation Park. Once this is in place, it will be easy to upgrade the equipment, and replace software and hardware,” says Martinsen.

The centre will have plenty of space in the Innovation Park, and it will become more closely linked to both the academic and commercial players already established there.

“The objective of Oslo Cancer Cluster Innovation Park has since the very start been to build bridges between academia and the industry. Incorporating ImTECH in our next construction phase will be the icing on the cake. Research, patient treatment and product development will go hand in hand at the centre, and that is exactly what we want,” says Jónas Einarsson, initiator of Oslo Cancer Cluster Innovation Park and CEO of the investment foundation Radforsk.

He adds that projects like ImTECH do not come out of thin air but are entirely dependent on enthusiasts such as Anne Katrine.

Inven2 assisted with industry contract and agreements

Martinsen says that she is very grateful for the support and enthusiasm she has encountered over the two years between her having the idea and the centre’s opening. Sealing this kind of collaboration between the private and public sectors has not always been plain sailing, however. Acquiring the equipment in the start-up phase has also been challenging.

“We’ve received invaluable help and guidance from Inven2 both with sealing the agreements with our partners and then designing a framework for agreements that we will use in future,” says Martinsen.

She praises the staff she has worked with at Inven2 for their positive attitude and solution-oriented focus since the start, as well as for being professional and very helpful.

“It’s clear that the industry wants to cooperate with ImTECH, and from our position, ImTECH, in Martinsen’s extremely capable hands, is a clear example of how cooperation between an academic community and industry players can be organised,” says Anne Marie Bjørgo, lawyer at Inven2.

“It is essential in this context to have good and balanced agreements that facilitate the collaboration on which the partners base their future development. It is in this intersection that Inven2 wishes to contribute, and it’s motivating and inspiring to be able to work with ImTECH and Anne Catrine Martinsen,” says Bjørgo.

Facts:

  • Oslo ImTECH is the abbreviation for Oslo Imaging Technology Research and Innovation Center
  • The centre’s partners are GE Healthcare, the University of Oslo, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Akershus University Hospital (Ahus), Nordic Neurolab, Oslo Cancer Cluster, Phantom Laboratory, RTI Group, Epigram, Collective Minds and Image Owl
  • Radiology is a medical field that uses different imaging techniques to diagnose and treat different illnesses. The imaging techniques are based on X-rays, including computer tomography (CT), ultrasound, magnetic resonance (MR) and scans using radioactive materials, including positron emission tomography (PET). Intervention radiology uses different imaging techniques to carry out minimally invasive treatment procedures. Source:Store medisinske leksikon

 

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