GE forms $250M health technology investment fund, will debut CDS system at HIMSS

GE Healthcare is establishing a $250 million equity investment fund to support innovative health technology companies, particularly in IT, diagnostic medicine and life sciences. Called the Healthymagination Fund, the effort is part of the company's previously announced $6 billion Healthymagination initiative.

In IT, the healthcare division of General Electric will focus its investments on EMRs and other clinical information systems, as well as health information exchanges and data analytics services. Diagnostics investing will include home health and monitoring equipment, among other technologies.

"As GE works on solutions to healthcare's biggest challenges, it is vitally important that we support the development of companies with promising technologies or business models that are aligned with our strategy and have the potential to shape the future of healthcare," GE corporate CEO Jeffrey Immelt said at a New York press event to launch the fund. The company has built its health IT division through a series of acquisitions of smaller firms over the last decade.

GE Healthcare officials also say they will market a clinical decision support system based on three decades of research and development at Intermountain Health Care in Salt Lake City. GE Healthcare will begin piloting the system at Intermountain next month in preparation for a full launch at the HIMSS conference in March.

For more on these new GE initiatives:
- have a look at this Healthcare IT News story
- read the Healthymagination Fund press release
- see GE Healthcare's press release on clinical decision support

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