GE Launches Drawbridge Health to Transform Blood Collection

By HospiMedica International staff writers

[05 Dec 2017]
Image: GE’s new Drawbridge solution will eliminate the need for phlebotomy and travel to blood draw centers (Photo courtesy of iStock).
GE Healthcare (Chicago, IL, USA) has introduced Drawbridge Health, a privately held healthcare technology company, which is developing a people-friendly system to integrate draw, collection and stabilize blood samples into a single device. The technology which integrates engineering and proprietary chemistries is also being developed to support room temperature shipping and streamlined downstream processing, thus ensuring reliable, accurate results.

The Drawbridge solution will allow healthcare providers and diagnostic testing companies to deliver a superior patient experience by eliminating the need for phlebotomy and travel to blood draw centers. Drawbridge expects its blood draw solution to alter the market for patients and healthcare providers by broadening the availability and access for molecular tests for a variety of diseases, as well as providing a convenient way to monitor overall health, therapy response and disease progression.

“At GE we share technology, markets, structure and knowledge across our varied businesses, which uniquely positions us to tackle many issues, including this one,” said Risa Stack, Managing Director of New Business Creation, GE Ventures. “With Drawbridge Health, we are combining technology from GE Global Research, expertise from GE Healthcare and business models from GE Ventures to offer a simple, safe and more efficient solution that can help save time, money and lives.”

“At Drawbridge Health, we have a tremendous opportunity to uniquely enable not only effortless access to diagnostic testing, but to also transform how diagnostics companies and healthcare providers interact with their patient-consumers,” said Lee McCracken, CEO, Drawbridge Health.

“The current sample testing process is inconvenient and challenging for patients and medical providers, alike. It requires clinical processing equipment, often a technician specifically trained to draw blood, plus a trip to the doctor’s office or hospital. By combining world class GE technology and a talented founding team to address an important market need, Drawbridge Health is well positioned to transform diagnostic testing for healthcare stakeholders, testing laboratories, patients and consumers.”