AMRA, an international medical technology company, has entered into a new co-marketing agreement with GE Healthcare, a leading provider of MRI systems. This agreement confirms that AMRA Profiler protocol will be made available on future GE Healthcare MRI scanners.

AMRA 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. As the world’s first CE approved technology of its kind, AMRA 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. 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, 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 Profiler in January 2016, allowing European clinicians to use AMRATM 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.