GE HealthCare CEO touts ‘breakthrough moment’ for Alzheimer’s patients

GE HealthCare CEO Peter Arduini discussed his company’s earnings, use of artificial intelligence and progress in Alzheimer’s treatment with CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Tuesday.

Arduini said the company’s imaging machines can be used to determine the amount of plaque in a patient’s brain in order to treat and provide them with new drugs.

“It’s just a breakthrough moment for patients. This is such an important window of time here,” Arduini said. “I think we’ll look back on … how some of these new therapies coming out are really driving change.”

GE HealthCare, which spun off from GE in January 2023, makes imaging equipment and other health-care-related machinery, including X-rays, MRIs, CTs and ultrasounds. Arduini said artificial intelligence can help create better-quality images and make older equipment run faster.

In the future, he continued, AI can be used to integrate tons of data and other information and help direct clinicians.

“AI is a really important aspect of our world,” Arduini said. “Just to put it in perspective, us and our peers that make imaging equipment generate probably half of the data that’s in a hospital system, just because of the quantity and size of the imaging data, and so we’ve been very focused on data management.”

Covid caused a large backlog of patients seeking various types of treatment, Arduini added. He said this backlog was at an all-time high around the world, which has contributed to the company’s growth.

The company’s second-quarter earnings report Tuesday showed a 7% increase in revenue year over year to $4.82 billion, slightly higher than the $4.79 billion Refinitiv estimate. Nevertheless, shares were off 42 cents at $80.21 on Tuesday.

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Disclaimer The CNBC Investing Club Charitable Trust holds shares of GE HealthCare.