Roche and GE Healthcare are launching decision support software technology designed to allow radiologists to combine patient records with files from other members of a cancer team on the same dashboard.

Combining patient images and data in one location is intended to help cancer teams decide on diagnosis and treatment plans more quickly and efficiently, the companies said.

The new version of Roche's Navify software workflow tool is the first product developed through a strategic partnership with GE Healthcare announced in January 2018. The partnership focuses on developing products to improve individualized treatment options for cancer and critical care patients.

The collaboration between Roche and GE Healthcare aims to create digital platforms for precision health in oncology and critical care. Patient information from diagnostic imaging such as CT or MRI scans, blood tests, tissue samples, gene sequencing, clinical trials and other sources is brought together in one place. The companies believe the approach will enable medical teams to determine the most effective treatments for patients.

A tumor board is a multidisciplinary treatment planning approach in which doctors who are experts in different specialties jointly review a patient's medical condition and treatment options.

To facilitate this approach, the oncology platform, called Navify Tumor Board 2.0, combines data from radiological imaging and monitoring equipment with laboratory tests looking at tissue pathology, blood-based biomarkers, genomic mutations and other factors.

The system integrates data from electronic medical records, medical best practices and research. Software apps on the system use analytics and machine learning to compare the patient's data with historical treatment data and outcomes.

The Navify Tumor Board will be available in the U.S. and Canada initially, with additional markets to be added in the near future, the companies said.

Roche and GE Healthcare are working on another platform for the ICU and emergency room. The goal of that platform is to help physicians identify or predict infectious diseases, which present a major risk for patients in the ICU.