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GE Creates New Value In Health Care

Current difficulties aside, General Electric is a fascinating company, recently announcing an alliance with Intel to develop and sell technology to help care for the elderly and chronically ill in their homes, and a development partnership with the CDC and Johns Hopkins for a rapid-response public health alert system designed to nip epidemics in the bud.

Cool ideas, both, and seemingly targeted at two sweet spots in health care's future. And good for Johns Hopkins for being part of the venture equation. But, depressingly, too many health care providers are watching from the sidelines as other more-innovative organizations build the next generation's value streams.

Except for inertial drift, there's no particular reason it must be that way. A theme of mine (and of this blog, to the extent there is one...) is that providers have ring-side seats to the health care system's myriad defects, a position which, if approached with the right mindset, provides endless raw material for new ideas, new solutions, new value chains and new sources of competitive advantage.

It takes a certain re-wiring of observational and creative DNA to see persistent flaws as new opportunities, not another burdensome, unfunded mandate. It takes a vibrant culture of "What if...? Why not...?" And it takes a willingness to create and nurture beneficial partnerships.


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