Originally posted on Crain’s Grand Rapids Business by Kayleigh Van Wyk
A precision medicine company is partnering with a Fortune 500 health care subsidiary for specialized training.
Bold Advanced Medical Future (BAMF) Health in April welcomed the first group of engineers from GE Healthcare Systems to its facility at the Doug Meijer Medical Innovation Building at 400 Monroe Ave. NW in Grand Rapids.
BAMF is working to create intelligence-based, precision medicine to diagnose and treat cancer and other diseases.
The company received a delivery of two PETtrace 890 cyclotrons from GE Healthcare in June 2021 and now has partnered with GE to train the next generation of cyclotron engineers.
“The state-of-the-art cyclotrons are only as good as the team that operates them,” said Dr. Matt DeLong, vice president of radiopharmacy at BAMF Health. “We are thrilled that GE joined us in Grand Rapids to train the BAMF Health Radiopharmacy Team and other engineers from world-class health care systems. This ensures that we are deploying the cyclotrons in the best way possible to help patients within West Michigan and beyond.”
The partnership offers Level I GE PETtrace cyclotron training, which focuses on understanding, servicing and maintenance of the PETtrace system to ensure the machines can be used effectively to diagnose and treat patients.
Cyclotrons are particle accelerators used to produce isotopes for detecting cancer and diseases.
“The ability to conduct these courses at BAMF Health has allowed other users from around the United States to receive this valuable training on maintaining the PETtrace, while eliminating the need to travel overseas during the pandemic,” said Tom Morelock, product service director for GE Healthcare. “Having trained service personnel is critical to maintaining the consistent supply of radiotracers for clinical and research applications.”
BAMF leadership expects this to be the first of many times that GE and cyclotron engineers from around the globe will travel to Grand Rapids to learn from and with the BAMF team to keep advancing this technology.
“We are proud and honored that BAMF Health and the Grand Rapids medical community can play a major role in this new rising field of medicine,” said Dr. Anthony Chang, founder and CEO of BAMF. “This will allow us to realize true, intelligence-based, precision medicine.”
