Microsoft Announces Healthcare Joint Venture with General Electric

Microsoft is determined to offer help to healthcare organizations and professionals to use real-time, systemwide intelligence for improving healthcare quality, via a new joint venture it created in collaboration with General Electric Co.

The new entity will be focused on delivering an open, interoperable technology platform, along with clinical applications that should provide better health management for improving the outcomes and the overall economics of health and wellness.

Healthcare providers around the world are moving towards a continuous population management approach, and the process resulted in new requirements for integrated care processes.

Some of these changes will include the move towards new payment models, and will impose healthcare providers come up with solutions aimed at offering improved care coordination and better performance.

Microsoft benefits from a deep expertise when it comes to building platforms and ecosystems, and the company will pass this to the newly formed joint venture.

The new company will also benefit from GE Healthcare’s experience in clinical and administrative workflow solutions, which should deliver to professionals the means to respond to the fast evolving 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.”

Microsoft also confirmed that it would be bringing to the joint venture the following: Microsoft Amalga, an enterprise health intelligence platform; Microsoft Vergence, a single sign-on and context management solution; and Microsoft expreSSO, an enterprise single sign-on solution.

“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 newly formed company will be based near the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Wash. The duo has yet to come up with a name for the joint venture.