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 |  AFP GE Unveils $6 Billion Health-Unit PlanWall Street Journal - 6 hours ago By PAUL GLADER General Electric Co. launched its "Healthymagination" initiative Thursday in hopes of building a thematic presence in health care on par with its four-year-old "Ecomagination" campaign around environmental concerns. In Strategy Shift, GE Plans Lower-Cost Health Products New York Times GE Plans a Big Health-Care Push BusinessWeek Reuters - The Associated Press -
GE Unveils $6 Billion Health-Unit Plan(topic overview)
CONTENTS:
- General Electric Co., the technology, media and financial services company, said Thursday it will spend $6 billion over the next six years to develop products and programs to improve health care costs, access and quality. (More...)
- The project is made possible, in part, by the GE Vivid i cardiovascular ultrasound system. (More...)
- GE will focus financing to assist in the adoption of EMRs and health information exchanges (HIEs). (More...)
- The health-care unit, which has been run by Dineen since July, has hardly been one of GE's growth engines in recent months. (More...)
- The $787 billion economic stimulus bill included about $20 billion for health IT. Immelt said government spending didn't spur "healthymagination." (More...)
- Increase by 15 percent people'''s access to services and technologies essential for health, reaching 100 million more people every year. (More...)
- There's more incentive than just healthier employees and lower health costs for the general public. (More...)
- As with EcoMagination, GE ( GE, Fortune 500 ) laid out a number of specific goals for Healthymagination. (More...)
- From aircraft engines and power generation to financial services, medical imaging, and television programming, GE operates in more than 100 countries and employs more than 300,000 people worldwide. (More...)
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General Electric Co., the technology, media and financial services company, said Thursday it will spend $6 billion over the next six years to develop products and programs to improve health care costs, access and quality. The Fairfield, Conn., company said it will spend the money on 100 health care-related technologies, such as low-cost digital X-ray machines, portable ultrasounds and more affordable cardiac equipment, to lower costs for doctors, hospitals, families and businesses. GE, which has 500 Dallas-area employees, is calling its program "Healthymagination" and plans to take 15 years to complete it. [1] Our customers are looking for productivity and solutions. We will focus on the products, the process excellence and the partnerships that broaden access to healthcare and reduce its cost.''' Former U.S. Senator Tom Daschle, who will serve on GE's healthymagination advisory board, said, '''We can only find real solutions in health care when business, government and their partners work together. The commitments GE made today on access, cost, and quality are a great start toward demonstrating their leadership in this debate. I look forward to working with them.''' INNOVATIONS FOCUSED ON COST, ACCESS AND QUALITY GE will more than double its research and development spending on healthymagination products, totaling $3 billion by 2015, meaning at least half of GE Healthcare'''s spending will be on innovations that: Reduce by 15 percent the cost of procedures and processes with GE technologies and services.[2] GE said, for example, that it will invest $3 billion in research and development to launch at least 100 innovations by 2015. That sounds like a lot of money but it is only "slightly more" than the company would have spent otherwise, Immelt said. The company also said it would reduce costs of its products and processes by 15%, increase people's access to its services by 15% and quality by 15%. Most important for investors, GE said it would accelerate revenues from its health care business so that they grow by 2 to 3 times in the years ahead.[3]
In an interview with Fortune, Immelt admitted that one of the most interesting metrics that will be applied to Healthymagination results from an accident of scale: Right now, GE Healthcare earns about $500 million more in profits than GE as a whole spends on health care costs, which is about $2.5 billion. GE wants to increase that "value gap," both by making GE Healthcare more profitable and by slowing the growth in spending on health care for the 600,000 people covered by its plan. To that end, Immelt said GE will offer healthier food in its cafeterias, expanded company fitness centers and better tracking of employee health-care spending through electronic records.[3] With the pace of health care reform quickening in Congress, General Electric came to Washington on Thursday, May 7, to launch a multibillion-dollar initiative it says will provide better health care at lower costs to more peoplegoals shared by many lawmakers. The company also hopes the $6 billion program, dubbed " healthymagination," will substantially boost its bottom line by fostering the growth of GE Healthcare.[4] General Electric '''s announcement today that it will invest $6 billion in a worldwide '''Healthymagination Initiative''' raises familiar questions about the interplay of free enterprise and healthcare reform in the U.S. While some components of GE'''s plan could help lower costs, raise quality, and increase access, as CEO Jeff Immelt contended in a press conference, the overall program seems designed to expand GE'''s healthcare business and its profits.[5] Under healthymagination, by 2015 GE will: Invest $3 billion in research and development to launch at least 100 innovations that lower cost, increase access and improve quality by 15 percent. GE will also apply its expertise in services and its suite of performance improvement tools for impact in these areas. These actions will strengthen GE Healthcare'''s business model.[2] During the next six years, GE plans to invest $3 billion in research and development to create at least 100 technologies and innovations it says will reduce the cost of medical procedures by 15 percent, increase access to health services by 15 percent and improve quality and efficiency by 15 percent. Another $3 billion will be allocated to improving coverage in rural and poor communities around the world.[4] GE will invest $6B USD over 6 years to develop and manufacture more low cost solutions for Canada and the world. This investment includes a $3 billion investment for 100 innovations that lower cost, increase access and improve quality; $2 billion to finance IT and access in rural & underserved areas; $1 billion for partnerships, content and services. "Innovation and technology are critical to solving big challenges like those we face in healthcare access, cost and quality," notes Elyse Allan.[6] In a splashy news release and Webcast to unveil the healthymagination effort, GE's CEO, Jeff Immelt, asserted that the $3 billion R&D; investment would help lower cost, increase access and improve quality. Various GE units also will spend $1 billion over the next five years for partnerships, media content and services related to healthymagination, the company said in its release.[7]
Immelt compared the initiative to GE's "Ecomagination" green-business push, which it launched four years ago and last year sold $17 billion of wind turbines, compact-fluorescent lightbulbs and other energy-saving devices. The Fairfield, Connecticut-based company said it aims to invest $3 billion in research and development on new healthcare products, to provide $2 billion in financing to help rural U.S. doctors and hospitals phase in electronic medical record systems and to invest $1 billion to develop other GE products to help its healthcare customers reduce costs.[8] GE'''s planned investment in healthcare includes $3 billion to develop 100 new products and services, $2 billion to finance healthcare IT in rural and underserved areas, and $1 billion over the next five years for partnerships, media content and services related to the campaign. It has also set a goal of helping hospitals save $1 billion over the next five years through process redesign. While the company plans to reduce growth in healthcare spending on its 6,000 U.S. employees and dependents to the rate of the CPI, Immelt has also set a target of increasing GE'''s healthcare business two to three times faster than the rise in the GDP. Some observers might see a contradiction between these goals.[5]
In addition to the $3 billion spend by GE Healthcare, GE Capital will provide $2 billion in financing for advancing healthcare IT and several GE businesses will spend $1 billion over the next five years for partnerships, media content and services related to healthymagination. Oxford Analytica, an independent, Oxford-based international research and consultancy firm, is reviewing GE commitments in products and services innovations to determine if they meet healthymagination standards.[2]
The company will commit $2 billion of financing and $1 billion in related GE technology and content to drive healthcare information technology and health in rural and underserved areas. These investments are the foundation of GE'''s healthymagination initiative, which is built on the global commitments of reducing costs, improving quality and expanding access for millions of people.[2] The broad program sets goals of reducing health care costs by 15 percent through $3 billion of spending on new, lower cost medical technology. The initiative also plans to broaden the use of tools such as electronic medical records and other medical information technology, with the hope of providing more advanced care to 100 million additional people each year. That will include $2 billion of financing for rural health care systems in the United States to adopt medical IT systems. It will also expand clinics in Cambodia and provide additional funding for maternal health care programs in Bangladesh.[9] "Health care needs new solutions," said GE'''s chief executive Jeffrey Immelt. "We must combine technology with innovations and smarter processes that help doctors and hospitals deliver better health care to more people at a lower cost,''' an AP report quoted him as saying. GE, which has struggled amid the global economic slowdown and problems at its GE Capital financing arm, has said that energy and health care are two likely growth areas in the years ahead. The Fairfield, Conn. -based company plans to use its NBC television networks as a way to increase consumer knowledge about health, and will launch a daily program dedicated to health in June on its MSNBC channel.[10] The targets will range from emerging markets to rural or even urban areas where technology is lacking. At least half of the unit's spending, GE says, will be on launching products or services that meet internal goals of expanding health care to more people or reducing costs by 15%. GE plans to launch at least 50 basic products tailored to rural or emerging markets, such as the lightweight portable electrocardiograph machines the company has developed for India. While it's unlikely that such low-cost products will boost the company's lackluster earnings in the near term, GE executives believe the strategy will position them to benefit from health-care-related stimulus spending and global population trends over the long haul.[11]
GE officials said the initiative, dubbed "healthymagination," is expected to result in the creation of low-cost health care products that can be offered in rural and underserved regions of the world, where quality health care can be difficult to obtain. It is also designed to reduce the company's own health care costs for employees and expand profitability for the GE Healthcare business.[12] GE Healthcare's earnings are expected to easily pay for health care costs of GE corporation's more than 300,000 employees, who produce everything from aircraft engines to television programming. The company said its GE Healthcare unit is currently earning $500 million more than what it costs to provide health care for all GE employees worldwide. GE refers to this as its "value gap" and said it's growing larger every year.[1]
GE's priorities include expanding health information technology, lowering the cost of health care equipment and promoting consumer-driven health care. Another piece of the initiative involves improving the health of GE's 300,000 employees. The company will try to keep its health care costs below the rate of inflation by transforming its 175 health centers into "wellness clinics," offering incentives for prevention, providing workers with personal health records and banning smoking at its facilities. GE is also getting its media arm involved.[4] Joining Immelt at the press event were executives from Intel ( INTC, Fortune 500 ), the Cleveland Clinic and Intermountain Healthcare, a nonprofit system of hospitals and clinics based in Salt Lake City, all of whom said better information technology can improve patient care and save money. It's no accident that GE chose to announce Healthymagination in Washington, where the debate over health care costs and access is moving towards center stage.[3] Make health IT faster and more productive ''' GE will seek to increase the use and capability of electronic medical record (EMR) technology and other information technology that speed communications, limit variation and control costs. GE today announced two new initiatives: GE, Intermountain Healthcare and the Mayo Clinic have developed physician decision support through IT in the form of evidence-based care and today said they will launch it commercially in 2010. This system provides access to the highest standards of care, anywhere.[2]
By accelerating EMR and HIE adoption, GE expects to help remove $28 billion in cost from the health system while improving access to better and more affordable care. Create innovation for all ''' More than two billion people do not have access to basic elements of a healthy life such as clean water or the ability to see a doctor or visit a health clinic. To address this need, GE has created a suite of maternal and cardiac care products for rural and developing markets. GE today announced two new efforts: GE will expand its maternal infant care product offerings by 35 percent and will invest and scale its work with Grameen Bank to 10 countries by 2015.[2] GE Capital will provide $2 billion in financing to help health providers in rural and underserved areas get access to more innovation that improves health and reduces the cost of care.[2] GE Capital, the corporation's finance arm, will provide $2 billion in financing to help providers in rural and underserved areas gain access to electronic health records and health information exchanges.[7]
The company also pledged $2 billion in financing and $1 billion in GE technology to promote health IT in rural and underserved areas. GE plans to help providers in these regions adopt EHR and health information exchange systems by 2011 to qualify for federal incentives outlined in the economic stimulus''package ( Healthcare IT News, 5/7).[13] The company is also committing $2 billion financing and $1 billion in GE technology and content to improve health care information technology and health in rural and underserved areas.[14] An estimated $2 billion will be spent on improving health care information technology access in rural and underserved areas. Another $1 billion will be spent on partnerships with other companies. GE is calling its program "Healthymagination" and expects it to take 15 years to complete.[15]
The initiative, called 'Healthymagination,' includes a $3 billion investment in health-care innovations over the next six years; $2 billion to finance IT and health care access in rural and underserved areas; and $1 billion in partnerships, content and services.[16]
Today, General Electric launched a $6 billion health care initiative, which includes $3 billion over the next six years for research and development of health IT and other tools''that could lower costs and boost quality, Healthcare IT News ''reports (Monegain, Healthcare IT News, 5/7).[13] WASHINGTON (AP) — General Electric Co. said Thursday that it will invest $6 billion over the next six years in an attempt to lower the cost of health care and improve the quality of medical care in underserved regions of the United States and abroad.[9] General Electric Co. announced this morning that it will invest $3 billion on health care innovation, intended to lower costs and improve care.[14]
Washington, D.C.' General Electric Co. announced a $6 billion initiative designed to provide better products, technology and financing to help improve global health care.[16] General Electric ( GE ) is launching a $6 billion health-care initiative that, in size and scope, rivals its "ecoimagination" marketing campaign and product development push into green technologies. Called "healthymagination," the initiative announced May 7 is aimed at resetting GE's health-care business, which currently gets most of its revenue from selling diagnostic and imaging equipment to hospital systems, toward rural and emerging markets, as well as toward the priorities set by the Obama Administration. The $17 billion unit plans to develop far more low-cost equipment, such as the portable ultrasounds already being used in developing regions. It will focus on services that help hospitals become more efficient and on health-care information technology, which is currently just a small part of GE's business.[11]
The Fairfield, Conn. -based GE is one of the world's largest industrial companies, making products like jet engines, household appliances and light bulbs. It also has a large health care division, which produces diagnostic equipment for hospitals and medical information technology systems. GE has dubbed the program "healthymagination," saying it is on par with its "ecomagination" initiative that focuses on cleaner energy projects like wind turbines and more efficient electric grids.[9]
Immelt, who ran GE's health care business before becoming CEO in 2001, described today's announcement as a repositioning of the business. Traditionally, he said, GE had focused on high-tech, high-cost products - MRI machines that deliver high-definition pictures, or CT scanners that produce 64-slice images of human organs. These breakthrough products can sell for more than $1 million apiece, and they are typically introduced in prestige hospitals in the U.S., before costs come down and they become more widely available.[3] Next year, GE plans to release a new EHR that will include clinical decision support features that it developed in partnership with the Mayo Clinic and Intermountain Healthcare. According to Immelt, broad adoption of this EHR would allow patients to receive the best care 90 percent of the time and could reduce healthcare costs up to 30 percent. The central feature of this new product is that it imbeds '''best-practice''' protocols into the physician workflow. According to Dr. Brent James, an official of Intermountain, a similar EHR has helped make'' the big Utah health system one of the most efficient, high-quality systems in the U.S. The key to its success, he said, is that every doctor and every nurse has to use the protocols and adapt them to the needs of individual patients.[5]
Immelt said the goal of the initiative is to achieve a 15 percent cost savings in health care procedures and processes with GE technologies and services; increase by 15 percent people's access to services and technologies essential for good health care; and improve quality and efficiency by 15 percent for customers through simplifying and refining health care procedures and standards of care.[17] The program aims to reduce health care cost and improve access and quality, said Immelt, who said three billion dollars is to be invested on innovations that will lower health care costs by at least 15 percent. "It's a growth program for the company by broadening our technologies," the CEO said.[18] The $3 billion will help create at least 100 new innovations to lower health care prices, increase access and improve quality by 15 percent, a company release says.[14]
"We will invest in innovations that measurably improve cost, access and quality. That means lower-cost technology for more customers, products matched to specific local needs and process expertise to help customers win. "This reflects the new opportunities we see in health care," Immelt said.[12] Under the 'Healthymagination' program, GE plans to introduce at least 100 health care innovations that lower costs, increase access and improve quality by 2015.[16] GE's Healthymagination initiative aims to reduce health care costs, improve the quality of care and expand health care access for millions of people.[17]
"Health means wealth," Immelt declared. GE, he said, thinks it can make money by providing health care more broadly and at lower cost, including some of the 2 billion people who do not have access to doctors or clinics.[3] GE intends to launch 50 low-cost products that offer powerful technology capabilities with simple operation and application targeted to achieve the 15 percent lower cost target, on average. These "only what is needed" products will be tailored to areas where access to health care technology is limited.[12] GE announced plans to launch 50 low-cost products aimed at serving organizations with limited health IT access (Anderson, Health Data Management, 5/7). These products aim to reduce health care costs by an average of 15%, the company said ( Milwaukee Business Journal, 5/7).[13]
In addition to detailed company profiles, we bring you critical analysis on new alliances and partnerships, new products, health care cost control, partnerships and alliances, management and board changes, and a host of other important business issues.[5]
Facilitate consumer-driven health and prevention ''' Chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension kill 1.7 million Americans a year ''' affecting seven out of every ten people. The cost of managing these diseases is rising rapidly. To help address these needs, GE recently announced a partnership with Intel to provide products to remotely monitor the health of seniors and those with chronic conditions. GE also announced these new initiatives: NBC Universal and NBC News will make a significant commitment to bring timely, actionable health and wellness content to consumers in the form of more than 5,000 televised reports annually on health and wellness and companion online tools.[2] WASHINGTON (Fortune) -- GE and its chief executive, Jeff Immelt, announced Thursday a sweeping new healthcare initiative dubbed Healthymagination that the company says will help deliver better care to more people at lower cost.[3] Multi-Billion Dollar Global Commitment to Deliver Better Care to More People at Lower Cost TORONTO, May 7 /CNW/ - General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) announced today a commitment to take on one of the world's toughest problems, an unsustainable global healthcare system.[6] WASHINGTON (AFP) — General Electric announced Thursday that it will spend six billion dollars between now and 2015 on innovative healthcare technology -- from portable ultrasound machines to low-cost X-ray equipment. "Healthcare is an important industry that is challenged by rising costs, inequality of access and persistent quality issues," GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt said at a Washington press conference as he unveiled the company's "Healthyimagination" initiative.[18] Healthymagination will draw on capabilities from across GE, including GE Healthcare, GE Capital, GE Water, NBC Universal, the GE Global Research Center as well as the GE Foundation, the philanthropic arm of GE. '''Healthcare industry is an important industry that is challenged by rising costs, inequality of access and persistent quality issues,''' Immelt said.[2]
"Health care is an important industry that is challenged by rising costs, inequality of access and persistent quality issues," said Jeff Immelt, chairman and CEO of GE. "Healthcare needs new solutions.[14]
The company will place greater emphasis in the future on lower cost products that deliver "only what is needed," Immelt said. They will be tailored to places where access to care is limited. Immelt during his presentation held up a portable ultrasound machine, developed for emerging markets, that sells for less than $100,000. He also pointed to a lower-cost product called the Lullaby Warmer that keeps infants warm after they are born - while generating healthy margins for GE.[3] GE said it will allocate $6 billion over the next six years for the effort, including $3 billion toward developing products it claims will lower costs, increase access and improve health-care quality. That is more.[19] General Electric Co. announced Thursday that it will invest $6 billion over the next six years to improve quality and lower the costs of healthcare in underserved regions throughout the world.[10] BOSTON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - General Electric Co said on Thursday it plans to invest $6 billion by 2015 to help its healthcare customers cut costs, in a push the biggest U.S. conglomerate is calling "Healthymagination."[20]
Building on its 4-year-old environmental effort, ecomagination, General Electric Co. is launching a $6 billion health care initiative focused on improving health care for more people at reduced cost.[12]
The company also said it would will commit $2 billion of financing and $1 billion in related GE technology and content to improve health care IT and health in rural and underserved areas.[17] The company's finance arm, GE Capital, is committing $2 billion in financing to external partners, mostly for health-care IT projects. The company plans to spend $1 billion creating new health-related content at NBC Universal and funding partnerships with outside companies, such as the alliance GE announced in April with Intel ( INTC ) to develop home health-care tech for the elderly or chronically ill. GE plans to improve the efficiency of the health and wellness programs for its 323,000 employees.[11]
Former U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle will serve on GE's Healthymagination advisory board. Daschle, who has written a book on health care reform, was in line to be the Obama administration's secretary of Health and Human Services but withdrew his name over growing controversy surrounding his income taxes. "We can only find real solutions in health care when business, government and their partners work together," Daschle said in a statement. GE's Healthymagination program will draw on capabilities across its divisions, including GE Capital, GE Water and NBC Universal and NBC News, which will produce more than 5,000 televised reports annually on health and wellness.[1] Fairfield, Conn. -based GE (NYSE: GE) will engage experts and leaders on policy and programs and create the advisory board, which will include former U.S. senators Bill Frist and Tom Daschle and other global health care leaders.[12]
As part of "healthymagination," GE plans to appoint a health care advisory board that includes former Sens. Tom Daschle and Bill Frist.[9]
"Healthymagination is our business strategy that seeks to help people live healthier lives, support customer success and help GE grow," Immelt said. "This reflects the new opportunities we see in health care.[17] GE will develop some of the new products abroad for local markets. Immelt noted that its healthcare business is booming in China and India, and he said that some of the products designed in other countries might eventually find their way to the U.S. market. He observed that '''healthcare is a really good industry that creates a lot of jobs and exports''' for the U.S., and is one of this country'''s competitive strengths. Again, this seems to be a contradiction, but not for GE. Like other health IT vendors, GE is planning a strong thrust into this field that will help it capture an optimal share of government spending on EHRs.[5] Immelt compared the initiative to GE's "Ecomagination" green-business push, which it launched four years ago and last year sold $17 billion of wind turbines, compact-fluorescent lightbulbs and other energy-saving devices. GE and chipmaker Intel Corp last month said they were joining forces in another healthcare venture, working to develop devices to help doctors monitor patients health remotely. Immelt has made healthcare a major focus for GE saying that major changes are needed to the U.S. healthcare system and arguing that GE stands to make money by selling equipment that will help to make those changes.[20]
The $6 billion investment in global healthcare initiatives will turn into new jobs, opportunities and expansion in the metro Milwaukee area, said Arvind Gopalratnam, a GE Healthcare spokesman. "This will have a huge positive impact on our Wisconsin employee base," he said. "This is a global strategy, and will have impact around the world. With the manufacturing, R&D;, engineering, marketing and sales we do in Waukesha and Wauwatosa, this will be an exciting time.[14] Healthymagination is designed to position GE Healthcare to grow organically over the long term at 2 to 3 times GDP. In addition, GE has a positive healthcare '''value gap''' of $500 million. This is the difference between earnings in GE Healthcare and employee healthcare costs. GE plans to grow this gap in the future as it drives innovations that solve customers''' problems and create healthier and more productive work sites.[2] Expand its employee health efforts by creating new wellness and healthy worksite programs while keeping cost increases below the rate of inflation. Increase the '''value gap''' between its health spend and GE Healthcare earnings to drive new value for GE shareholders. Engage and report on its progress.[2] GE will partner with governments and other companies to build a '''healthy work site''' certification program. GE will turn its 175 health centers into wellness clinics and increase the use of employee incentives and decision support for health and prevention. It will provide personal health records to employees to identify health risks and track behaviors. GE also will make its worksites smoke-free. As a result of these efforts, GE will seek to lower the growth of its healthcare costs below the rate of inflation. This should make many of these sites more competitive in global markets.[2]
"The wellness initiative, employee incentive program and 'healthy work site' certification process outlined by GE should provide HR professionals with some valuable key learnings on how to contain costs while promoting employee health," said O'Neil, who attended the GE event. "And that's what HR does: leads win-win efforts for both employees and the company. It's great to see a leader like GE embracing the essence of HR."[4]
For employees GE Vice Chairman John Rice will lead an effort to create an innovative culture of health to help improve the health of GE'''s employees and retirees and to contain costs.[2]
GE'''s Performance Solutions service business has set a target of $1 billion in reduced cost for customers over the next five years to help hospitals become more efficient through process redesign.[2] The effort is modeled on GE's "ecomagination," a program started in 2005 to put the company at the forefront of environmental technology. It has resulted in 75 new products that are expected to generate $18 billion in revenue this year.[4] GE Healthcare, a $17 billion division of GE, is expected to grow up to three times faster than the U.S. gross domestic product.[15] Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries.[6] Washington » General Electric announced a $3 billion investment in new medical technology Thursday that includes a partnership with Utah's Intermountain Healthcare to create a top-line electronic medical-record system.[21]
The $3 billion in funding includes $2 billion to finance medical information technology for rural U.S. health care systems.''[10] IHC will receive royalty payments. This health information technology effort is only a small part of GE's $3 billion Healthymagination effort.[21]
GE will also address shortfalls in healthcare information technology, with $2 billion in financing from GE Capital.[3]
GE Healthcare will spend $3 billion over the next six years on research and development.[7] GE Healthcare is a $17-billion division of GE, which had $183 billion in revenues in 2008.[3]
"You can deal with change, or you can get out in front of it," says GE Healthcare CEO John Dineen. With its massive finance arm struggling, the Fairfield (Conn.) company is now reliant on its industrial businesses--which include health care, infrastructure, energy, transportation, and media--to keep profits humming.[11] The health care initiative is modeled on GE's Ecomagination project, which was launched in 2005 to drive the company's energy, environment and clean water businesse. Like EcoMagination with its "green-is-green" mantra, Healthymagination has a catch phrase of its own.[3] The size and scope of the company will allow GE to make an impact on health care in the same way it has on the environment, according to GE chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt.[4] With typical hoopla - a well-attended press conference with customers and health-care experts, a live webcast, full-page newspaper ads and even a Twitter feed - GE wrapped a big marketing campaign around a business, health care, that has been part of the company for more than a century, when it began making x-ray machines.[3]
GE is one of the world's top industrial companies, producing products ranging from household appliances to jet engines and light bulbs. It also has a substantial health care division that makes diagnostic equipment for hospitals and medical IT systems.[10] BNET Healthcare provides daily industry news coverage and insights for managers and executives, focusing on the major health care providers, hospitals and facilities, insurance companies, and medical device manufacturers.[5] ABOUT GE HEALTHCARE: GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care.[6]
GE's new "Healthymagination" project aspires invest $6 billion by 2015 on a new strategy to deliver lower-cost medical equipment and care around the world while increasing earnings at its big medical systems and bioscience division.[22]
In Toronto, one of five cities selected for the global kick off, GE Canada President/CEO Elyse Allan and GE Healthcare Canada General Manager Peter Robertson provided an overview of healthymagination, a new global multi-billion dollar business strategy for sustainable healthcare.[6] Officials pledged to increase the speed and productivity of health IT by improving the use and capacity of electronic health record systems and related technology ( Healthcare IT News, 5/7). GE already has developed some health IT initiatives through its Centricity suite, which helps patients and providers monitor and track records (Glader, Wall Street Journal, 5/7).[13] FOR CUSTOMERS GE will work with partners to address four critical healthcare needs to start: Target technology toward lower-cost outcomes ''' To reduce the impact of technology on costs, GE is broadening the way it develops new products.[2] One example is a handheld ultrasound machine that will cost 20 percent less than GE'''s current bedside ultrasound units. Another is a '''low-dose''' CT scanner that will cost 15 percent less than current products. Of course, such innovations'''if they provide as much clinical value as their predecessors'''will spur demand, increasing GE revenues. Greater access to these technologies, as numerous studies attest, will encourage providers to order more tests, driving up costs.[5] To date, Oxford Analytica has qualified seven GE products that yield 15 percent improvement in cost, access and quality, with 20 more in the pipeline.[2]
The drive will focus on research and development of new technologies to cut by 15 percent the cost of using GE's CT-scan machines and other devices. It will also aim to spur sales of systems to track medical records electronically -- a key priority that the Obama administration is allocating stimulus spending to encourage. GE will focus on simpler, less costly equipment, such as portable ultrasound machines, which can be more quickly phased in at smaller hospitals and medical facilities in the United States and emerging markets abroad.[20]
"We must innovate with smarter processes and technologies that help doctors and hospitals deliver better health care to more people at a lower cost."[19] Our broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance solutions services help our customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost.[6]
"Healthcare needs new solutions. We must innovate with smarter processes and technologies that help doctors and hospitals deliver better healthcare to more people at a lower cost," he said.[18] We must combine technology with innovations and smarter processes that help doctors and hospitals deliver better healthcare to more people at a lower cost.[2]
Our newest innovations ''' low-cost digital x-ray machines, portable ultrasounds, more affordable cardiac equipment ''' will save costs for doctors, hospitals, the government, families and businesses. This will help level the playing field in health care.[2] The Web-based record system will help doctors and nurses avoid medical errors and waste, while also creating an online record for the patient. "It means our ability to deliver good care is going to explode at the same time the costs are going to drop profoundly," said Brent James, the executive director of IHC's Institute for Health Care Delivery Research.[21]
"Managing costs, while increasing quality and access, can be done - if government, health care agencies and institutions, businesses, academic bodies, patient interest groups, all of us, collaborate," said Peter Robertson at Thursday's press event.[6]
"We believe in universal, affordable coverage," Immelt said. The time is "way past due" for health care reform in the U.S., he said. "Access is not just an issue in the U.S.," he added.[3] As part of the effort, the Waukesha, Wis. -based unit of General Electronic Co. will launch 50 low-cost products tailored to the needs of organizations with limited access to health care I.T.[7] General Electric Co. launched its "Healthymagination" initiative Thursday in hopes of building a thematic presence in health care on par with its four-year-old "Ecomagination" campaign around environmental concerns.[19]
The project is made possible, in part, by the GE Vivid i cardiovascular ultrasound system. This portable and wireless design weighs 30 times less than other full-featured, larger-scale systems, and makes it possible for patients to receive exams almost anywhere. - Tomography in Digital Radiography - Bonnyville Health Centre, Alberta. GE's VolumeRAD(TM) digital radiography technology is providing healthcare practitioners in this community with an important tool to manage care locally, avoiding patient transport for critical injuries including head and neck. [6] Announced today, an agreement with GE Healthcare and the Pan Northern Ontario PACS Project (PNOP) to create a Diagnostic Imaging Repository (DI-r) which will assist physicians access images and reports from other facilities, helping to improve diagnostic time lines, and increasing patient care regardless of location - Baffin Island cardiac program.[6] '''We learned that technical innovation can drive solutions and value for customers, investors, employees and the public. We will bring the same integrated approach to healthcare, focusing all of our expertise, labor and imagination on its success.''' GE Healthcare President and CEO John Dineen said, '''This is the right time to reposition our healthcare business, given the changes and challenges in the industry.[2] '''We'''re going to get better at promoting employee health at the 600-plus GE locations around the world,''' Rice said. '''By making the well-being of our employees a priority and giving employees the tools they need to make healthy choices, we'''re going to control our own costs.''' For investors Like ecomagination, GE believes its healthcare initiative will be good for investors.[2]
GE Healthcare's earnings are expected to easily pay for healthcare costs of GE corporation's more than 300,000 employees, who produce everything from aircraft engines to television programming.[15] GE Healthcare's U.S. headquarters are in Waukesha, and the company has about 7,000 employees throughout Wisconsin.[14]
GE also said it plans to launch a personal health record system for company employees ( Health Data Management, 5/7).[13]
GE subsidiaries NBC Universal and NBC News will do more than 5,000 televised reports per year on health and wellness, and MSNBC will launch a new, daily program to disseminate health information, beginning in June.[5] The program will be anchored by health expert and NBC News Chief Medical Editor, Dr. Nancy Snyderman. She will tackle everything from health and wellness tips and medical breakthroughs to in-depth looks at health policy. The renowned Cleveland Clinic will join with GE and NBC to conduct research that seeks to better understand important factors that move consumers from being aware of a health condition via the media to actually changing their behaviors for the better.[2]
"Health care needs new solutions," said Jeff Immelt, GE's chairman and chief executive.[19] GE previously partnered with the Nobel Prize-winning organization and has now agreed to the joint goal of creating a sustainable rural health model that reduces maternal and infant mortality by more than 20 percent. GE, through its Developing Health Globally initiative, is expanding the number of public health clinics it supports in developing markets from 30 to 100, starting with six new clinics in Cambodia in 2009.[2]
For the public GE announced today the formation of GE Health Advisory Board, to include membership by former U.S. Senators Bill Frist and Tom Daschle and other healthcare experts. The board will advise GE on its health efforts, investments and policy and will participate in regular public reporting on GE'''s performance.[2] GE formed a Healthymagination advisory board whose members include former U.S. Senators Bill Frist and Tom Daschle.[3]
GE will focus financing to assist in the adoption of EMRs and health information exchanges (HIEs). About half of those practicing medicine in the U.S. do not have access to these technologies. [2] Work with partners to focus innovations on four critical needs to start: accelerating healthcare information technology; target high-tech products to more affordable price points; broaden access to the underserved; and support consumer-driven health.[2] GE will work with partners to address four critical healthcare needs to start: low-cost technology; healthcare IT; innovation for all; and consumer-driven healthcare. Oxford Analytica, an independent, Oxford-based international research and consultancy firm, will monitor and report annually on GE's progress throughout this initiative.[6] The head of GE's Healthcare Division, Reinaldo Garcia, added that the initiative "will have a big impact in Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East" where low cost, portable technology is much in demand.[18] Intermountain Healthcare footed one-third of the $300 million development cost and GE paid for the rest.[21]
Healthymagination in Canada Examples of GE partnerships in Canada addressing cost, access and quality include: - Diagnostic Imaging Access.[6] Our "healthymagination" vision for the future invites the world to join us on our journey as we continuously develop innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality and efficiency around the world.[6]
The health-care unit, which has been run by Dineen since July, has hardly been one of GE's growth engines in recent months. Hospitals are slashing costs and budgeting fewer purchases of GE's core products, such as MRI machines and CT scanners. [11] More importantly, it'''s unclear how many providers will want to use GE'''s EHR. The company'''s current hospital product, for example, is not among HIMSS Analytics' top 10 EHRs.[5]
"We'll introduce products at all price points, all at the same time, in different parts of the world," Immelt said. Globalization is already becoming a two-way street, he noted, with some GE products moving from the U.S. to China and India, but others, designed and built in the developing world, coming to the West.[3] '''Healthymagination is our business strategy that seeks to help people live healthier lives, support customer success and help GE grow,''' Immelt said.[2] GE's effort will produce benefits for consumers, shareholders, employees and the public, according to Immelt. He acknowledged that critics are likely to call it a marketing campaign. "It's a business strategy," Immelt said.[4]
The $787 billion economic stimulus bill included about $20 billion for health IT. Immelt said government spending didn't spur "healthymagination." "We would do this with or without stimulus," he said. [4] Along with energy technology, Immelt said health innovations are "the pillars of growth" for the company.[21]
"We can make money solving big problems on big global stages with technology." GE is'' planing to use its NBC television networks as a means to raise consumer knowledge about health, and will establish a daily program committed to health in June on MSNBC.[22] We see the need to improve the (health care) system and feel our Milwaukee area employees can have a huge impact on reducing global concerns."[14] Improve quality and efficiency by 15 percent for customers through simplifying and refining health care procedures and standards of care.[12] GE has more incentive than just creating an affordable health care system for a healthier America.[1] Senator Tom Daschle will serve on the program's advisory board. '''We can only find real solutions in health care when business, government and their partners work together,''' Daschle said in a statement.[22] The money will also expand health clinics in Cambodia and provide additional resources for maternal health care programs in Bangladesh.[10] O'Neil, formerly an executive at Kaiser Permanente, a large health care organization, said wellness and prevention programs should be central to health care reform.[4]
NBC Universal and NBC News have committed to airing 5,000 hours of televised health care reports and related online tools.[4] Lab data can help address problems of overuse, misuse, and inefficiency in the delivery of health care.[13] Ken Terry, a former senior editor at Medical Economics Magazine, is the author of the book Rx For Health Care Reform.[5] Patients avoid costly travel to southern unfamiliar urban centres for health care.[6]
Increase by 15 percent people'''s access to services and technologies essential for health, reaching 100 million more people every year. [2] "GE and GE Healthcare is committed to developing new, high-tech, but low-cost, technologies to ensure Canadians can access cutting edge healthcare in a more sustainable way."[6] GE announced plans for a 2010 launch of a new evidence-based physician decision support system developed with the Mayo Clinic and Intermountain Healthcare.[13]
GE has named the new program "healthymagination," saying it is similar in scope to the "ecomagination" initiative that focuses on clean energy initiatives like wind turbines and more efficient electric grids.[10] GE is calling the program '''Healthymagination''' and anticipates it to take 15 years to complete.[22]
GE's Heathymagination initiative marks a shift in emphasis for a business the company has been in for more than 100 years.[3] In the same way that GE's environmental efforts seep into many of the conglomerate's divisions, the latest initiative isn't limited to GE Healthcare.[11] For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at http://www.gehealthcare.com.[6]
GE's healthymagination is a three-pronged approach to make measurable improvements in global healthcare systems by 2015.[6] Immelt said, '''Healthymagination initiative is consistent with our global growth strategy of aligning our businesses with the greatest growth opportunities of the next decade.[2]
GE CEO & Chairman Jeffrey R. Immelt announced the initiative in Washington, D.C. to an audience of policymakers and thought leaders.[6] "At the cornerstone are technology and investmentthings GE can do," Immelt told an audience at the Newseum, a media museum a few blocks from Congress. During his presentation, he showed pictures of ultrasounds, CT scanners, infant warmers and electronic medical records that he said are examples of cutting-edge equipment that GE will make at a range of prices, including levels affordable in low-income areas.[4] "We don't run a charity at GE. We make money." Any companyor countrywill realize productivity and economic gains from improving the health of its workforce or population, Immelt argued.[4] The Cleveland Clinic is also partnering with GE to find new ways to influence consumer health behavior.[5] GE plans to form a health advisory board that will include former Senate Majority Leaders''Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) (Manning, AP/Miami Herald, 5/7).[13] The initiative also includes the creation of the GE Healthy Advisory Board, which will report on the program's progress.[12]
GE'''s financing will help healthcare systems adopt EMR and HIE before 2011 in time to qualify for federal financial incentives.[2] We must innovate with smarter processes and technologies that help doctors and hospitals deliver better healthcare to more people at lower costs."[14] The California HealthCare Foundation''is looking for candidates to fill two Senior Program Officer positions on''the Innovations for the Underserved and Better Chronic Disease Care teams.''[13]
MSNBC will launch a new, daily program dedicated solely to health information, beginning in June.[2] COMPOUND FACTIONS -- NielsenConnect, the new compound brand name launched late last year by the Nielsen Co., and headed by former Madison Avenue "iconoclast" Jon Mandel, has "heard from clients, agencies and media sellers about being stodgy and slow to respond to changes in the marketplace," Nielsen-owned trade magazine Mediaweek reported this week. Nielsen's response is to have its disparate operating units work more closely together to provide more integrated client solutions, and to sell more Nielsen stuff in the process. To illustrate the new corporate synergy, NielsenConnect placed the story exclusively in Mediaweek, after it was passed up by both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. The release, er story, reveals five new compound words - NielsenCombine, NielsenConnections, NielsenTrend, NielsenHealth, and NielsenLinx - representing various new products and services, that are actually repackaged combinations of old products and services, but with much higher price tags and with no spaces between their names. "This is only the beginning," Mandel said in a letter to clients outlining the products.[23] Immelt doesn'''t, partly because the company aims to create new, lower-priced products.[5]
Jeffrey Immelt, GE's CEO, said the new software should be on the market sometime next year.[21] The bulk of new spending, however, will be a $3 billion research and development investment over the next six years into affordable health-care equipment designed for underserved populations.[11]
There's more incentive than just healthier employees and lower health costs for the general public. [15] Web''portals and personal health records are among the online tools now being offered by''some safety-net clinics, health departments, and hospitals. This report describes how patients are using the tools to coordinate their care.[13]
As with EcoMagination, GE ( GE, Fortune 500 ) laid out a number of specific goals for Healthymagination. Without knowing what the company would have done under a business-as-usual scenario, it's hard to know how meaningful they are. [3] ABOUT GE: GE (NYSE: GE) is a diversified infrastructure, finance and media company taking on the world's toughest challenges.[6]
From aircraft engines and power generation to financial services, medical imaging, and television programming, GE operates in more than 100 countries and employs more than 300,000 people worldwide. [6] As Immelt put it candidly, '''We don'''t run a charity at GE. We'''re in business to make money for our investors.'''[5]
SOURCES
1. GE investing $6 billion in health care | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Dallas Business News
2. HealthNewsDigest.com
3. GE's Healthymagination aims for low cost healthcare tech - May. 7, 2009
4. GE Launches $6 Billion Plan to Develop Health Care Innovations | workforce.com
5. GE Plans Broad Push In Healthcare | BNET Healthcare Blog | BNET
6. CNW Group | GENERAL ELECTRIC CANADA INC. | GE Launches "healthymagination" in Canada
7. GE Unveils $3 Billion R&D; Effort
8. UPDATE 1-GE to invest $6 bln by 2015 in healthcare push | Reuters
9. The Associated Press: GE plans to invest $6B to lower health care costs
10. GE To Invest Billion In Global Healthcare Initiative - Health News - redOrbit
11. GE Plans a Big Health-Care Push - BusinessWeek
12. GE launches $6B health care initiative - Triangle Business Journal:
13. GE Announces $6B Initiative To Boost Health Quality, Cut Costs - iHealthBeat
14. GE to invest $6 billion on health care over next 6 years - BizTimes
15. General Electric to spend $6B to improve health care | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Dallas Business News
16. GE launches $6 billion health-care initiative :: BtoB Magazine
17. GE to Invest $6B in Health Care Initiatives
18. AFP: GE to spend $6 bln on high-tech health sector
19. GE Unveils $6 Billion Health-Unit Plan - WSJ.com
20. GE says $6 billion healthcare drive to cut costs | Health | Reuters
21. IHC partners with GE on Web-based medical records - Salt Lake Tribune
22. GE's "healthymagination" program will change world-wide healthcare « eFitnessNow
23. MediaPost Publications Real Media Riffs - Tuesday, May 15, 2007 05/15/2007
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