AMRA Announces Collaboration with GE Healthcare to Advance Precise Body Composition Measurement with MRI

AMRA has announced at the European Congress of Radiology in Vienna, Austria, that it has entered into a new co-marketing agreement with GE Healthcare, a leading provider of MRI systems. This agreement confirms that AMRA^TM Profiler protocol will be made available on future GE Healthcare MRI scanners.

AMRA^TM Profiler is a cloud-based body composition measurement service, which uses images from a rapid, 6-minute MRI scan to deliver accurate, precise fat and muscle measurements.² As the world’s first CE approved* technology of its kind, AMRA^TM Profiler introduces new standards in body composition measurement and imaging biomarkers.

“This co-marketing agreement marks an important milestone in our relationship with AMRA and we are proud to be able deliver access to AMRA cloud based body composition analysis to GE customers,” said Mark Stoesz, Global Product Marketing Manager at GE Healthcare. “In light of GE Healthcare’s strong heritage in MRI technology, this collaboration is a welcome opportunity to combine our expertise and deliver new value to physicians and their patients.”

Medical assessments of body composition have traditionally relied upon BMI and waist circumference; indirect measurements that do not distinguish between different parts of the body and give little information about metabolic status. The location and distribution of different types of fat can affect an individual’s likelihood of developing metabolic-related diseases.^3,4 Gaining precise measurements of an individual's various fat and muscle volumes can therefore provide a more accurate assessment of a person’s health status. Through international collaboration with world-leading researchers, AMRA is also building upon its precise measurement technology to develop the Body Composition Profile (BCP), a complementary tool that can be used alongside BMI to deliver a clearer picture of an individual’s health and metabolic risk.

“Over 2.1 billion people in the world are characterised as overweight or obese,⁵ placing a major and growing burden on global health systems,” said Tommy Johansson, CEO of AMRA.

“AMRA aims to assist the world’s medical leaders in providing better body composition measurements, leading to more personalised treatment for people at risk of poor metabolic health outcomes. The AMRA and GE Healthcare co-marketing agreement is a significant step forward in this ambition.”

The co-marketing agreement follows two recent AMRA milestones, including CE Mark approval for the clinical use of AMRA^TM Profiler in January 2016, allowing European clinicians to use AMRA^TM Profiler measurements in patient care. Additionally, in 2015 AMRA announced the company has entered into a unique international collaboration with Pfizer Inc. to investigate the relationship between fat and muscle distribution in the body and metabolic health, including risk factors for conditions such as obesity and diabetes.

For further information regarding AMRA please visit: www.amra.se

*A mandatory conformity marking for certain products sold within the European Economic Area

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About AMRA

AMRA is an international medical technology company and the first in the world to transform MR images into precise body composition measurements using a cloud-based, computer-aided service.

AMRA collaborates with world-leading pharmaceutical organisations, biobanks and population cohorts, research institutions, hospitals, and clinics, aiding in the advancement of metabolic research and therapeutic application. By offering access to more accurate knowledge about our bodies, AMRA can assist the world's medical leaders in predicting and preventing disease.

Headquartered in Sweden, AMRA was founded in 2010 as a spin-off of the Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV), the Department of Biomedical Engineering (IMT) and the Department of Medicine and Health (IMH) at Linköping University, Sweden.

References

¹ Information on file. AMRA March 2016

² Magnus Borga, et al. NMR in Biomedicine, Volume 28, Issue 12, p1747–1753, December 2015

³ Jean-Pierre Després et al. Nature 444, 881-887 (14 December 2006)

⁴ Ian J. Neeland, MD et al. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2015;65(19):2150-2151

⁵ Marie Ng, PhD et al. The Lancet, Volume 384, No. 9945, p766–781, 30 August 2014

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Contact information

GCI Health
Charlotte Collins
Tel: +44(0)207-072-4214