A joint venture between General Electric and Microsoft will see the two corporate giants work to develop new IT Infrastructure services aimed at the healthcare sector, InvestorPlace editor Jeff Reeves reported this week.
The idea, he said, is to leverage GE's experience with medical computing hardware and combine it with Microsoft's programming nous and pre-existing software for a robust, flexible IT Infrastructure solution that also provides a high degree of security.
However, the joint company — which will be called Caradigm — will face plenty of hurdles, according to Reeves. Businesses with a better record of innovation than either Microsoft or GE have found getting into the medial sector tough going, he noted, citing the unsuccessful Google Health portal that was recently scrapped by the search engine powerhouse.
Nevertheless, Caradigm could have a couple of key advantages over Google's attempt, the editor said.
"It was largely a lack of health-data sources — and uniformity in records — that ultimately led to the demise of Google Health. Privacy concerns made it difficult to get enough information in the database to plot meaningful trends or allow for any valuable analysis. Microsoft and GE might have a leg up on that front because this partnership offers seamless integration with MRI machines, sonograms and other devices," he reported.
That said, there's still no guarantee that Caradigm can succeed where Google Health failed. The issue of medical information being stored in dozens of different formats by various organizations is likely to prove problematic, and the strict regulations governing how medical data can be stored and transmitted are another potentially serious stumbling block.
"An individual hospital might be able to use the Caradigm database to highlight trends, but cost savings and health care improvements will only come from looking at much larger patient pools," Reeves wrote.
Despite the barriers, the importance of upgraded medical technology is growing plainer by the day, as the government provides incentives for vendors to meet regulatory standards and offers similar inducements for healthcare providers to adopt their services. A large-scale, successful transition to a more technologically advanced health infrastructure could pay huge dividends in terms of improved efficiency, reduced medical errors and the ability to cut down on the vast amounts spent on administrative overhead.
