GE HealthCare
GE HealthCare Technologies, Inc.[5] is an American multinational medical technology company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.[6] It was spun-off from General Electric on January 4, 2023, with GE retaining 6.7%. As of 2017, it is a manufacturer and distributor of diagnostic imaging agents and radiopharmaceuticals for imaging modalities used in medical imaging procedures. It offers dyes used in magnetic-resonance-imaging procedures; manufactures medical diagnostic equipment, including CT image machines; MRI, XRAY; Ultrasound; Cath Labs; Mammogram; Nuclear Medicine Cameras; and develops Health technology for medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, disease research, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing. It was incorporated in 1994[7] and operates in more than 100 countries.
Company type
- Nasdaq: GEHC
- Nasdaq-100 component
- S&P 500 component
- September 28, 1994 (as a subsidiary)
- January 4, 2023 (as a standalone company)
Worldwide
- Peter Arduini (CEO)
- H. Lawrence Culp Jr. (chairman)
US$19.6 billion (2023)
US$2.4 billion (2023)
US$1.6 billion (2023)
US$32.5 billion (2023)
US$7.2 billion (2023)
GE Aerospace (6.7%)
c. 51,000 (2023)
On November 9, 2021, General Electric announced it would split into three investment-grade public companies, with GE HealthCare being one of the three planned divestitures. GE HealthCare completed its spin-off on January 4, 2023,[8] with the company being listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market.[9]
History[edit]
19th century[edit]
In 1893, C.F. Samms and J.B. Wantz founded the Victor Electric Company in a basement. By 1896 they made electrostatic generators for exciting X-ray tubes and electrotherapeutic devices.[10]
They had a staff of six and a capital of $3,000 invested in the company.
Victor Electric[11]
plunged into the X-ray business and by 1896 (one year after Roentgen’s discovery) were making X-ray machines. The business grew rapidly and so, in 1896, moved into new premises three times the original size, but this did not solve the space problems and the company made 3 moves by 1899.
Victor Electric had competitors. In 1896, G.A.Frye began making X-ray tubes, which in 1897 was purchased by Swett & Lewis as the first merger in the X-ray business.
20th century[edit]
During the first years, it was easier to keep up with the competition than space requirements. By 1903, Victor Electric had outgrown its facilities at 418 Dearborn St. in Chicago and bought two floors of a building at 55 Market Street, Chicago. This was again only a temporary stop; by 1910 it was too small and the firm moved again in 1911 to a building at the corner of Jackson Blvd. and Damen Avenue. This was the first permanent home of Victor Electric Co. They stayed there 35 years and during this time, gradually acquired all the space in the building and several around it.
During the first 20 years of the X-ray business, many new names appeared. In 1901 the Western Electric Coil Co. was formed. In 1902 MacAlaster & Wiggin purchased the X-ray tube business of Swett & Lewis. Two other companies were the Radio Electric Co., which was later to be known as Snook-Roentgen Manufacturing and the Scheidel Western X-Ray Coil Co. In 1907, Homer Clyde Snook introduced the Snook apparatus, the first interrupterless device produced for X-ray work. The Snook apparatus was manufactured in England.[12]
In 1916, the first significant merger took place, Scheidel Western, Snook-Roentgen, MacAlaster & Wiggin, and Victor Electric Co. were merged with Victor, the surviving name. Victor's two founders had key roles in the new firm; C.F.Samms was company president and J.B.Wantz was Vice-President of manufacturing and engineering.
Four years later, in 1920, a second major merger was accomplished when Victor was acquired by General Electric[13]
which was, at that time, the foremost manufacturer of X-ray tubes.
The marriage of Victor Electric and General Electric became complete of July 28, 1926 when Victor was declared a wholly owned affiliate of General Electric. The merger brought renewed vitality to the organization and Victor entered the foreign market with equipment sold and serviced in nearly 70 countries. In 1930, the name was changed from Victor to General Electric X-Ray Corporation.
World War II saw the dramatic use of X-rays in industry for non-destructive testing of war materials. It also saw the broad use of X-rays as a medical tool for military services.
As the war ended, GE X-Ray Corporation continued to grow. Greater production capacity and greater expertise was needed in the core business of building X-ray tubes. Since the tubes were made from hand-blown glass, the decision was made to move the company 90 miles north to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in order to tap into the enormous amount of glass-blowing talent in Milwaukee's beer-brewing industry. The company moved from Jackson Blvd. in Chicago to a 43-acre (170,000 m2) site in the city of West Milwaukee, which had been used for building turbochargers during the war. The street in front was renamed Electric Avenue, and the General Electric X-Ray Corporation had a new home in 1947.
In 1951, the corporate structure was dissolved and the name changed to General Electric X-Ray Department. This new name lasted less than 10 years as the department divested itself of its industrial X-ray business, widened its medical business, and took on the name of GE Medical Systems Department. One of the reasons for the name of Medical Systems was due to the increase in the electro-medical business, which began in 1961 with the introduction of patient monitoring equipment. By 1967 modular equipment was developed which was soon popular in cardiac and intensive care units. Early in 1960, pacemakers were developed in Corporate Research & Development in Schenectady, New York, and in 1969 the Standby Pacemaker was developed.
In 1968, the Biomedical Business Section opened its first factory in Edgerton Avenue. Late in 1970 a surgical package was introduced and in 1971, equipment to monitor blood gasses during surgery was introduced.
Later in 1971, Biomedical opened a 9,000 square meter admin and engineering building opposite its factory and in 1972, the section was renamed The cardio-Surgical Product Section. With the growth of its medical business, the General Electric Company upgraded the department to The Medical Systems Division in 1971. Also in 1971, a major expansion programme was started and the Waukesha factory was planned. Work started in July 1972, and was completed in 1973.
In 1974, work on CT was started and eventually the first CT machine was installed in 1976. Development continued to the first CT 8800, and after long negotiations, GE acquired the medical division of EMI Group Ltd. in late 1980 soon after the 1979 takeover of EMI medical division by Thorn Electric company.[14]
The American Anti-Trust Authorities stopped the takeover in the USA however, and the EMI factory in Chicago was bought up by Omni-Medical, who continued to make CTs for a number of years.
Criticism[edit]
Gadolinium-based contrast agents[edit]
In 1994, GE HealthCare ignored advice of its safety experts to proactively restrict the use of its MRI contrast Omniscan[45] and tried to conceal evidence of its risks by telling its researchers to "burn the data", as revealed during a trial opposing debilitated consumers[46] due to its accumulation in multiple organs.
In 2009, GE HealthCare sued for defamation a radiologist at the University of Copenhagen Hospital who linked the uses of Omniscan to gadolinium induced fibrosis after 20 of his patients (from which 1 died) suffered from it after its administration.[47]
in 2017, GE HealthCare opposed the EMA suspending the use of Omniscan (along other linear agents), despite evidence of the high cytotoxicity of gadodiamide[48] and its likelihood to dissociate after deposition.
In a 2020 study, their other MRI dye, Clariscan, was retained more in the cerebrum, cerebellum, kidney and liver of rats than those injected Dotarem, its original drug.[49] Although the authors didn't provide a possible explanation, differences in the chelation process of gadolinium ions (Guerbet's process being patented) or quality assurance could be causes of increased retention in vivo.
Other[edit]
According to The Independent, the firm has received more money back in tax benefits (£1.6 million) in the UK over the past 12 years than it has paid in. Its UK operations are all ultimately owned by a holding company in the Netherlands. Tax paid was £250,000, 1.7% of its £14.3m profit. The group employs 22,000 people in the UK.[50]
It supplies a cloud-based imaging system to the East Midlands Radiology Consortium, which was described in October 2017 as breaking down, so that medical images had to be sent between hospitals by taxi.[51]
GE HealthCare has a range of products and services that include medical imaging and information technologies, electronic medical records, medical diagnostics, and patient monitoring systems. GE HealthCare consists of 9 primary business units:[52]
While it has offices around the globe, GE HealthCare has major regional operations in Buc (suburb of Paris), France; Helsinki, Finland; Kraków, Poland; Budapest, Hungary; Yizhuang (suburb of Beijing), China; Hino & Tokyo, Japan, and Bangalore, India.
Its biggest R&D center is in Bangalore, India, built at a cost of $50 million.[57]