Ger Brophy, PhD, Head of New Product Development, GE Healthcare, Medical Diagnostics discussed diagnostics as the future of personalized medicine at the TEDMED 2011 Conference in San Diego, CA. During his talk, Brophy noted that while new drugs and targeted treatment have advanced the personalized medicine field considerably, realizing this paradigm depends on the development of powerful diagnostics – some of which are available today.

“Today, we’re at a tipping point in disease treatment,” Brophy said. “We’re characterizing and understanding disease at the individual, the molecular level – and that makes a world of difference to how patients will be managed.”

Brophy’s talk focused specifically on GE Healthcare’s existing work in oncology and neurodegenerative disease, in keeping with the Company’s commitment to expand its advanced cancer diagnostic and molecular imaging capabilities. As part of its promise to make a dramatic impact on cancer, starting with breast cancer, the Company has made a $1 billion healthymagination commitment to cancer over the next five years, in addition to launching a $100 million innovation challenge geared to bring the most promising breast cancer diagnostic ideas to market.

-Richard Park