General Electric Co. launched a new $6 billion campaign aimed at expanding its health information technology business.
The campaign, dubbed “Healthymagination,” will use several units within GE, including GE Healthcare, to drive funding for research and development of at least 100 different IT projects. The company said it plans by 2015 to spend $3 billion on those 100 projects and $2 billion on financing IT and access in rural areas, in addition to providing $1 billion in GE technology and products through the campaign.
GE, based in Fairfield, Conn., was not on HIMSS Analytics' list of top 10 electronic health-records vendors as of January 2009. In announcing the new campaign, GE said it will strengthen the GE Healthcare business model.
The company is not the first to commit funds as a way of boosting its presence in the health IT field—in April, IBM Corp. made $2 billion available to technology projects related to federal information technology initiatives.
