GE and medical image tech company Feedback Medical Ltd. have struck an agreement granting non-exclusive global rights to the healthcare giant to offer TexRAD texture analysis software for medical imaging research applications.

Feedback Medical was formerly Cambridge Computed Imaging Ltd.

“Feedback will also be working with General Electric Healthcare affiliates to identify further territories where TexRAD can enhance the General Electric Healthcare portfolio,” according to a Feedback statement.

India is the first planned market for the TexRAD offering through Wipro - GE Healthcare India.

That relationship was begun via the business development efforts spearheaded by Feedback's director of new business, Dr. Balaji Ganeshan, and followed talks during the last year between the two firms.

"We are delighted to be working with GE Healthcare as a major provider of medical imaging equipment and services in India, demonstrated by their commitment and investment in this market,” Feedback CEO David Crabb said in a statement, adding that the the deal would "further expansion of the firm's technology to research centers worldwide."

TexRAD is presently in more than 40 research institutions in Europe, North America, Asia and Australasia.

The deal will permit better responsiveness to local needs and grow awareness of the technology among researchers, especially in India.

TexRAD is a patented quantitative image texture analysis technology for diagnostic radiological scans. It aids in diagnosis and treatment of cancer and other diseases by analyzing texture features in CT scans, MR images and PET scans in order to reveal “visually imperceptible information,” states the company.

At RSNA 2017 reports of its use centered on liver, pancreatic, kidney, cervical, oral, genitourinary, head and neck, thyroid, neuroendocrine and endometrial cancers, as well as gastrointestinal stromal tumors, gliomas, thymic-epithelial neoplasms and carotid-plaques.

Feedback also made news in November, 2017, when it announced a CE-marked release of TexRAD Lung, a "software only" Class 1 medical device, used to diagnose lung cancer.

In early April there was GE news when a deal was announced for Veritas to buy the GE Healthcare software unit for over $1 billion. “Veritas Capital has significant knowledge and expertise in the health care IT space, and by operating as a stand-alone business under Veritas’ ownership, we now have the opportunity to further revitalize our product portfolio and pursue complementary acquisitions,” Jon Zimmerman, vice president and general manager of Value-Based Care Solutions at GE Healthcare said at the time. The move will allow, he added, additional support and resources to go toward “deepening our commitment and capabilities to help healthcare providers manage their financial, clinical, and employee workflows across the continuum of care.”

The $1.05 billion cash deal includes GE's Enterprise Financial Management (Revenue-Cycle, Centricity Business), Ambulatory Care Management (Centricity Practice Solution) and Workforce Management (formerly API Healthcare) assets, which make up the Value-Based Care Division.

Calling the opportunity in the $9 billion market “tremendous,” Veritas Capital's CEO and Managing Partner Ramzi Musallam noted that this deal was a corporate carve-out, like earlier health care tech buys.

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