GE, Microsoft launch JV aimed at global healthcare system transformation

General Electric Company through its healthcare IT business and Microsoft announced plans to create a joint venture aimed at helping healthcare organisations and professionals use real-time, system-wide intelligence to improve healthcare quality and the patient experience.

General Electric Company through its healthcare IT business and Microsoft announced plans to create a joint venture aimed at helping healthcare organisations and professionals use real-time, system-wide intelligence to improve healthcare quality and the patient experience.  Upon formation, the new company will develop and market an open, interoperable technology platform and clinical applications focused on enabling better health management.

As healthcare providers and payers around the globe shift from episodic single-patient care to continuous population management, new requirements have emerged for integrated care processes, greater insight and engaging patient experiences.   These delivery system reforms, including a shift toward new payment models, require healthcare providers to address gaps and integrate data across silos of care delivery to help enable better care coordination and performance improvement.

This new venture will combine Microsoft’s expertise in building platforms and ecosystems with GE Healthcare’s experience in clinical and administrative workflow solutions, empowering healthcare professionals and organisations with the intelligence and capabilities to respond to the rapidly evolving and complex healthcare landscape.

“High quality affordable healthcare is one of the biggest challenges facing every nation, but it’s also an area where technology can make a huge difference,” said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. “Combining Microsoft’s open, interoperable health platforms and software expertise with GE’s experience and healthcare solutions will create exciting opportunities for patients and healthcare providers alike. Working together, GE and Microsoft can help make healthcare systems more intelligent and cost efficient while improving patient care.”

The two parent companies bring complementary expertise to this new venture and will contribute substantial intellectual property, including:

•          Microsoft Amalga, an enterprise health intelligence platform

•          Microsoft Vergence, a single sign-on and context management solution

•          Microsoft expreSSO, an enterprise single sign-on solution

•          GE Healthcare eHealth, a Health Information Exchange

•          GE Healthcare Qualibria, a clinical knowledge application environment

“The complementary nature of GE Healthcare’s and Microsoft’s individual expertise will drive new insights, solutions and efficiencies to further advance the two companies’ shared vision of a connected, patient-centric healthcare system,” said Jeffrey R Immelt, Chairman and CEO of GE.  “The global healthcare challenges of access, cost and quality of care delivery are creating a new focus on the performance and accountability of healthcare delivery systems in every country, at every level of care.”

The new company will deliver a distinctive, open platform that will give healthcare providers and independent software vendors the ability to develop a new generation of clinical applications. The venture will develop healthcare applications on the platform using in-house developers and the platform will connect with a wide range of healthcare IT products.  GE Healthcare IT will immediately be able to connect existing products to the platform, helping current customers to derive new insights.

The new venture complements the existing offerings from both parent companies and is expected to yield job growth in its first five years of existence. It will operate globally, offering interoperability platforms and application solutions targeting both healthcare providers and payers.

Michael J Simpson, Vice President and General Manager at GE Healthcare IT, will serve as the company’s CEO. The new company, which has yet to be named, will be headquartered near the Microsoft campus in Redmond with significant presence in Salt Lake City, Utah and additional cities around the world.