GE HealthCare (GEHC)’s recent moves show it is shifting from being primarily a hardware vendor to becoming a full imaging-software and services provider.
With its newly authorized Pristina Recon DL for mammography and the planned acquisition of Intelerad for US$ 2.3 billion, GE is positioning itself to capture recurring software revenue.
GE’s mammography upgrade
Yesterday, GE announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Premarket Authorization to Pristina Recon DL, a deep-learning powered 3D mammography reconstruction system. GE says the system uses two sequential deep-learning models: the first reconstructs high-fidelity 3D volumes with fewer artifacts and noise; the second enhances clinically relevant features in a synthesized 2D view, all without increasing radiation dose.
In internal readings, breast radiologists reportedly preferred images produced by Recon DL in 99.1% of reviews compared with conventional reconstruction. GE’s leadership described the move as part of a broader commitment to AI-driven women’s health imaging. “By applying advanced deep-learning technologies, we’re shaping the future of breast imaging, one defined by uncompromised image quality, faster workflows, and greater confidence in early cancer detection,” said Jyoti Gupta, President and CEO of Women’s Health and X-ray at GE HealthCare.
Beyond being a clinical upgrade, with better image quality, improved detection, and more confident radiology reads, there is significance in how the product is being delivered: as a software upgrade for existing hardware. That changes the economics and the customer value-proposition.
Rather than sell a brand-new scanner, GE can offer existing users of its mammography platform an incremental upgrade with potentially cheaper and faster than replacing hardware. That positions GE to generate recurring revenue from software licensing or upgrades, rather than relying solely on capital equipment sales.
A bigger transformation
Just days before the FDA nod, GE announced its agreement to acquire Intelerad, a cloud-based medical imaging software company. The purchase price: US$ 2.3 billion cash.
GE’s public rationale frames the deal as a step toward building a “fully connected, cloud-first, AI-enabled imaging offering” that spans inpatient and outpatient care, including ambulatory networks and teleradiology. GE’s CEO Peter Arduini said the acquisition will bring new cloud-enabled and intelligent solutions to radiology and cardiology, extending GE’s footprint in outpatient networks and enabling care teams to work more efficiently.
According to GE, Intelerad is expected to bring around US$ 270 million in revenue in the first full year post-acquisition, with approximately 90% of that revenue recurring.
The combination of Recon DL on the women’s imaging side and Intelerad’s enterprise-imaging software suggests GE’s ambition: to shift from selling discrete pieces of medical hardware to selling imaging as a software-driven, cloud-enabled service.
That shift matters for several reasons. First, it changes how customers (hospital systems, imaging centers, outpatient clinics) budget. Instead of major capital investments every few years for new machines, they can begin to accept smaller, periodic software upgrades or subscriptions. That lowers financial barriers and improves flexibility.
Second, recurring revenue tends to be more predictable and defensible than one-time hardware sales. For GE, a stable software revenue base can smooth volatility tied to capital-spend cycles. For customers, software-driven imaging plus AI can deliver incremental improvements without disrupting existing workflows or requiring new infrastructure.
Third, bundling hardware, reconstruction, AI, cloud PACS and workflow software together makes GE a one-stop provider. That appeals to large health systems and outpatient networks seeking to standardize imaging operations across multiple sites and modalities.
Industry observers view the Intelerad deal as proof that GE is making “a real metamorphosis: from hardware manufacturer to vertically integrated solution provider.” As one physician and GE shareholder noted on LinkedIn, GE is now combining its imaging equipment leadership with software and cloud capabilities; a move toward being “a one-stop shop for imaging… built for the future: digital, intelligent and cloud-native.”
Why this matters now
The timing is critical. Radiology and women’s imaging are under pressure globally. Breast cancer remains among the most common cancers in women. Early detection drives better outcomes, and as screening volumes rise, imaging centers face increasing demand, tight budgets, and staffing constraints.
Against that backdrop, offering a software upgrade that improves image quality (and potentially detection sensitivity), without requiring investment in new hardware, delivers a practical value proposition. For clinics, it’s a lower-cost, lower-friction way to modernize.
Meanwhile, GE’s pivot toward cloud and software positions the company to capture a larger share of the long-term economics around imaging. The acquisition of Intelerad gives GE a gateway into the growing outpatient and ambulatory imaging market, widely regarded as a high-growth, $2 billion-plus segment.
For investors and health-system purchasers, the combination of hardware, AI-enabled reconstruction, and cloud-based workflow locks in recurring revenue, streamlines workflows, and reduces capital expenditure making GE’s integrated offering more appealing than a piecemeal set of devices and software from different vendors.
