These new software solutions will look to connect caregivers in a meaningful way to the systems upon which they rely, enabling them to deliver better informed diagnoses and improved care.
GE Healthcare plans to invest $2 billion over the next five years to accelerate development of healthcare software. The investment will focus on maximizing performance of healthcare tools, improving hospital operations management, and making clinical care better optimized and more effective.
“We’re shifting to using one common software platform across all GE Healthcare current and future products and services,” says Evren Eryurek, GE Healthcare's software chief technology officer. “The goal would be for all the applications we build across the business then to leverage this platform for greater efficiency and consistency.”
The company hopes its software will help its customers care for more patients as a result of scheduling efficiencies, faster data entry, better asset management, and improved clinical decision support. It also sees potential for new and upgraded software to help reduce costs by optimizing workflow in care delivery, minimizing payment cycles, maximizing reimbursement rates, and eliminating unnecessary waste.
Software is already playing an important role in automating the analysis of growing amounts of health data being collected by hospitals and healthcare systems. One of GE’s top competitors, IBM, has already made significant inroads into the healthcare space with its Watson computer system, which is employing artificial intelligence to analyze molecular and genomic data. But while competition in the space is fierce, GE has a unique opportunity to create tight integrations between new software and its medical imaging equipment and genomic sequencing businesses. It also has the scale and international presence to take advantage of opportunities such as the Russian’s government commitment to spend $30 billion by 2015 to modernize its healthcare facilities. (http://www.burrillreport.com/article-3900.html)
“GE is investing in software and analytics to better help our customers manage the operational complexity of the healthcare system,” says John Dineen, President and CEO of GE Healthcare. “These new software solutions will look to connect caregivers in a meaningful way to the systems upon which they rely, enabling them to deliver better informed diagnoses and improved care.
June 11, 2013
http://www.burrillreport.com/article-ge_healthcare_to_invest_2_billion_in_software_development_over_five_years.html