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[[The Healthymagination Press Conference Will Begin Shortly] [♪jazzy music♪]]
[Welcome and thank you for joining us today.]
[My name is Mike Barber, and I'm the Vice President for Healthymagination.]
[In May we launched Healthymagination,]
[[Mike Barber - Vice President, healthymagination]]
[GE's commitment, and a $6 billion investment over the next 6 years,]
[for a hundred innovations to drive health quality and costs across the world.]
[By 2015 we pledge to improve quality of care by 15%,]
[improve the access by 15%, which translates to 100 million additional patients per year,]
[and lower the cost of healthcare that utilizes our technologies and services by 15%.]
[We're making progress to these pledges.]
[A lot of the products and technologies that you see around here]
[are a manifestation of that.]
[And I'm honored to have a few more announcements that we'll make today.]
[Joining me on the stage is Dr. Richard Gaynor from Lilly,]
[and I'll kick it off by handing it over to Jeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO.]
[[Immelt] Thanks, Mike. [applause]]
[Welcome, everyone. [applause continues]]
[We're going to help everybody get into better shape by sweating you this afternoon.]
[It's a little bit warm in here. [laughter]]
[We've got a lot of great news and a lot of great people in the room to share with you.]
[[Jeff Immelt - Chairman and CEO, GE] We talked about Healthymagination in May.]
[We said it was kind of analogous to what we launched in 2005 in Ecomagination,]
[which was really trying to take a systems approach ]
[to solving some of these big, global issues.]
[So what we thought we did in clean energy we wanted to try to drive in affordable healthcare.]
[And we're here today to really give you a status report and update]
[on some of the commitments and claims we made back in May.]
[And so, as Mike said, Healthymagination really had a couple parts.]
[It was a commitment to technology, and you're going to see technology around you,]
[and we've got a few more announcements to make today,]
[but $6 billion to be spent over several years to advance products that had better cost,]
[We said we would address our own employees.]
[GE has hundreds of thousands of covered lives in the United States]
[and many more around the world.]
[We're changing our own employee healthcare plan]
[for the first time in more than 20 years to drive more prevention,]
[to make our employees have better health,]
[and to, over the long term, change the shape of our own cost curve.]
[We said it would be good for investors. Clearly, healthcare is in the news today.]
[We had an investor meeting here yesterday ]
[where we presented them our vision for the future.]
[And like we did with Ecomagination, we thought it was important to share our ideas]
[with the public because to solve these big systems issues,]
[you ultimately have to align technology, customer presence, ]
[employees, and public policy.]
[And it's the only way that you're ever going to address any of these activities]
[is you've got to treat them as systems problems]
[and really try to align all the activities along the same lines.]
[We said that the $6 billion would be invested in more than a hundred products,]
[and these products would come in a couple of different iterations.]
[It would be more products and more price points,]
[so go from the top end to the bottom end and make sure that we were innovating]
[We said we would work to make healthcare information technology more effective]
[and drive the importance of that.]
[We said we would improve access, and drive technologies that would improve access,]
[not just for the US but globally.]
[And lastly, we said we would work more on technology that addressed prevention.]
[How do you spot disease earlier? How do you treat it more effectively?]
[And how do we partner with our doctors and collaborators]
[and really with consumers to overall change the shape of healthcare?]
[So these are the things that you're going to see when you walk around here today]
[and some of the people that we have in the room today to speak more about it.]
[Yesterday we announced two technologies.]
[One is called the Vscan, which since it's up here I can't resist holding it up again.]
[As an old salesman I always love to hold up products and things like that.]
[But this is really a PDA ultrasound which I think really addresses access]
[and really in a very meaningful way for healthcare.]
[It really takes Moore's Law, the ability to miniaturize and take cost out,]
[and applies it to healthcare.]
[I wouldn't think about this just necessarily in the US,]
[I'd think about it in the context of India, Africa, and some of the other markets.]
[When I was in the healthcare business more than 12 years ago,]
[an image of this high quality would be in a product that weighed more than 200 pounds,]
[so it just shows you the pace of change in technology as you go forward.]
[We also introduced a clinical decision support tool that we call ECIS.]
[It's going to be launched at Intermountain Health later this fall]
[and for global distribution into next year.]
[And this really elevates electronic medical records into really providing better clinical data]
[Ultimately, electronic medical record is good ]
[but it's not really going to save cost in the healthcare system]
[without having this great clinical data that goes into the hands of physicians.]
[And that's what ECIS will do.]
[Today we're also making a couple of other announcements.]
[This morning we completed an acquisition of a company called ONI,]
[which makes low cost dedicated MR scanners]
[that we see as another way to drive cost and access into the healthcare system.]
[This has been a start-up technology, and like we've done in the past,]
[investing in other people's ideas and bringing them inside GE]
[and commercializing them and taking cost out, driving distribution,]
[we think this adds to our MR product line, and we think it's an exciting advancement as well.]
[We also are announcing today we're launching a $250 million investment fund]
[really targeting partnership with companies in healthcare]
[that are working on diagnostics, that are working on information technology,]
[and that we can work with to help them grow.]
[As you know, in the energy space we probably have 20 or 25 key collaborations.]
[We don't think we can invent it all inside GE,]
[and we want to make sure that we are investing with some of the best]
[start-up companies and venture capitalists, so that $250 million]
[is going to be associated with that.]
[Like we did with Ecomagination, there's two advisory boards]
[that I've got inside the company that I help chair.]
[One is on Ecomagination that we've done for the last five years.]
[We had our first meeting today of the Healthymagination advisory board.]
[We've got about 15 members really coming from academia,]
[practicing physicians coming from India, Germany, Japan,]
[to get a 360 degree perspective on healthcare.]
[And what we've found in energy was the notion of having people ]
[that took an NGO perspective, a technology perspective,]
[a public policy perspective,]
[if we can plug all those things in, it can help us launch new thoughts and new ideas.]
[I always say that one of the great benefits of running GE]
[is that everybody will meet with you once,]
[and you can be an aggregator of ideas and people,]
[and we can be very much a catalyst for change.]
[And that's what we're trying to do with the Healthymagination advisory board]
[and in working with our key collaborators.]
[Some are in the audience today: Andy von Eschenbach and Bill Brody]
[and others that are part of the group.]
[Two of them are up here with me this afternoon]
[and really represent--in a bipartisan way--some perspectives on healthcare.]
[And what I thought I'd do is ask two of the members of the advisory board]
[just to help frame how they see the debate]
[and how companies like GE can help participate.]
[So with that, let me ask Dr. Frist to maybe give a few views]
[and then Tom, if you would as well, that would be great.]
[Jeff, thank you and congratulations on a successful effort to date]
[and an effort that clearly will save lives over time.]
[This whole marriage of using technology to address quality of healthcare,]
[[Bill Frist, M.D. - Former Senate Majority Leader]]
[access of healthcare, value and cost of healthcare--]
[the very same issues that Tom and I in the past as policymakers have addressed]
[and that are being addressed right now--right now--in Washington, DC.]
[I think the best thing that Tom and I can do is really reflect]
[the nature of our discussion on the advisory board today.]
[It really is looking at how you address the big issues in healthcare]
[in a way that captures the very best of the public sector,]
[the sector that Tom and I represent,]
[in marriage with, hand in hand with, the private sector.]
[The private sector--companies like GE, like hundreds and hundreds of other companies,]
[are out there innovating all the time, capturing the creativity of America,]
[the entrepreneurship, the investment, the willingness to take risks,]
[the adaptation to the underserved, the adaptation to places that I go every year.]
[During the United States Senate, every year--]
[and I think most of you know I'm a heart and lung transplant surgeon,]
[and that's really what I am, not a politician--]
[but every year I go to Africa and go to the Sudan every year and go to Mozambique]
[and go to Uganda, go to Rwanda, go to Bangladesh doing surgery.]
[And I can tell you, something like Vscan now--]
[if I had something like that, which now I can take with me--]
[it would save what I have to do when I go into Lui Hospital in the southern Sudan]
[in the middle of a civil war, and people are coming in with abdominal mass]
[and I don't know if it's in the chest or if it's in the belly.]
[I don't know if it's related to typhoid or a hydatid cyst ]
[or to tetanus or to tuberculosis.]
[By having this little instrument, instead of operating on all five of those patients]
[who come in, I might only operate on one.]
[The power of technology in Lui, Sudan, is the same that applies in Appalachia]
[in eastern Tennessee or in downtown Memphis itself--]
[lifesaving technology at the point of service to improve access,]
[to improve quality and improve value in healthcare.]
[We also talked about home healthcare today,]
[the current things that GE is doing and other companies are doing.]
[All of us have heard again and again recently that after Medicare,]
[18% of the people in Medicare--we're hearing a lot about that in Washington--]
[come back into the hospital within 30 days. Why?]
[Because prescriptions aren't filled, because the doctor's orders weren't quite clear,]
[because they forgot that they weren't to take in salt for heart failure.]
[Well, what is being done in terms of home monitoring in healthcare]
[that connects the patient out of the acute hospital at home with the nurse,]
[with the social worker, with the doctor, and with people back at the hospital monitoring it]
[so that they don't bounce back in,]
[so when the weight picks up, it is diagnosed.]
[All of a sudden you see how costs are saved again and again.]
[A third issue is that of information technology,]
[the marriage of the public sector and the private sector.]
[All of you know President Obama rightfully put about $30 billion of your money]
[into health information technology.]
[We have underinvested for decades--for decades--and without information,]
[how do you know which doctor to choose or what hospital to go to?]
[[Bill Frist, M.D. - Former Senate Majority Leader]]
[Well, with investments in healthymagination with GE]
[and again with many other companies, that $30 billion goes out ]
[and buys electronic health records.]
[But instead of just electronic health records, we look at decision support]
[so the physician right now is given information to make a decision]
[And even looking beyond that, looking at informatics of data that's being collected]
[and aggregated with information technology and with computers today]
[so that information speaks to information so that we can begin this whole exciting field]
[of personalized information.]
[So that's a little bit of the flavor of what is behind the scenes in the advisory board.]
[It is that public which is government, private which is most everybody in the room here.]
[And you out there are the ones with the innovation, with the creativity,]
[with the willingness to take risks to make it all happen. Thank you.]
[Bill Frist and I exchanged speeches.]
[[Tom Daschle - Former Senate Majority Leader]]
[You just heard what I was going to say, and I forgot what he was going to say.]
[That's an indirect way of saying I agree with all of what my colleague, ]
[Bill Frist, has shared with you.]
[Like Bill, I commend and congratulate GE and the leadership of this corporation]
[for the work that they're doing through Healthymagination.]
[So much of what we have to do in our country]
[goes beyond what we're going to be able to do with policy itself.]
[So much of it involves personal responsibility.]
[A lot of it involves corporate responsibility.]
[A good deal of it involves creating a new mindset by which we can do the things]
[we know make good common sense with regard to nutrition ]
[and wellness and good prevention.]
[And that in essence is what Healthymagination in part is all about.]
[I told Jeff earlier that one of the most important things that I heard this morning]
[was the exciting and far-reaching plans that GE has for its own employees,]
[working with ways to ensure that the employees who work with this company]
[can set the standard and be the model for the rest of the country and elsewhere]
[as we look to trying to create a wellness paradigm]
[that will be part of the environment of GE and other businesses around the world.]
[So much of our economy depends on innovation.]
[And whether or not we succeed in innovation depends in part ]
[on whether we're willing to step up to the plate and demonstrate real leadership.]
[That is particularly true when it comes to healthcare.]
[In terms of prevention, there is no question it's through innovation that we can ensure]
[greater prevention and greater wellness across the board.]
[We have a huge problem in our country with regard to chronic illness management,]
[and it will be through innovation that we find new ways, exciting ways,]
[more effective ways, to deal with the chronic illness issues]
[that our country has failed to confront thus far.]
[We have serious cost problems,]
[and I can't think of a better way with which to begin to address cost in a meaningful way]
[than to cut our administrative costs in half,]
[which is entirely possible with the introduction and utilization of HIT--]
[health information technology.]
[Whether we're going to continue to see innovation ]
[depends on whether we're willing to make the investment.]
[You just heard Jeff say to you and to the rest of the country]
[that this commitment to investment is something that GE holds very highly]
[But it has to go beyond this company, and it has to go beyond just business.]
[We need more research, we need better technology,]
[we need far better infrastructure, we need a lot more training,]
[and we certainly need far more coordination with all of our innovative practices]
[and efforts to reach the kind of best practices efforts and standards]
[that we have aspired to in this country for a long period of time.]
[[Tom Daschle - Former Senate Majority Leader] In my view,]
[the only way that's going to work is to recognize the partnership that we have]
[between the business and the public sectors in our country.]
[This is a shared responsibility because it is a shared relationship we have]
[with regard to healthcare delivery in this country.]
[We have a public-private hybrid system,]
[and it's going to take the partnership of business and government working together]
[to create better access, to create better quality,]
[and to do the things we know we can do in reducing cost.]
[And that's not just true in the United States.]
[If we're going to have the kind of global effort necessary ]
[to improve people's quality of life and to save lives,]
[then innovation, investment, and partnership are needed there too.]
[I'm confident that we're off on a good start in this context with this company,]
[and I'm delighted to be a part of the advisory committee.]
[Thanks to Tom and Bill. It was great.]
[Like I said, we've got venture capitalists, physicians, people in the industry--]
[[Jeff Immelt - Chairman and CEO, GE]]
[We've talked about the Vscan, we've talked about clinical information support,]
[we talked about the acquisition of a dedicated MR scanner business today,]
[we've talked about the creation of a $250 million investment fund.]
[The next thing I wanted to do was talk about something,]
[trying to link in the social responsibility and some of the things we've done]
[We've got a GE Foundation, which has been very active over the years.]
[And in keeping with Healthymagination, we've decided to take $25 million]
[and really apply it towards improving access ]
[for the underserved communities in the United States.]
[And so this is going to be a grant process that we roll out,]
[like we've done on educational grants in the past.]
[And today we're going to announce our first set of grants in New York City--]
[about a million dollars--to four clinics in New York City]
[that really are focused on the underserved.]
[Leading one of those in Bedford Stuyvesant is Ulysses Kilgore,]
[and I wanted Ulysses maybe just to come up and talk about what he's doing.]
[So Ulysses, thanks. >>Thank you. [applause]]
[The Bed Stuy Family Health Center is delighted to be ]
[a recipient of the GE Foundation's generosity under its Developing Health program.]
[[Ulysses Kilgore - President, Bedford Stuyvesant Family Health Center]]
[There are a couple of items I want to mention to you]
[before I follow with my other remarks.]
[And that is that the Bed Stuy Family Health Center]
[is, and has been, recognized by the National Committee for Quality Assurance]
[The other thing that I wanted to mention was that soon we'll be moving]
[into a new 30,000 square foot green and eco-friendly health center in Brooklyn,]
[and we will be delivering all of our primary services out of that new facility.]
[At the present, we are operating out of 10,000 square feet,]
[and last year we generated some 61,000 visits.]
[At the new facility we have projected that by the end of the first year of being there]
[we will have generated 90,000 visits.]
[So those are two things that I want you to keep in mind ]
[because they are things that we are really high on.]
[At the Bed Stuy Family Health Center we offer a broad range of diagnostic treatment,]
[disease prevention, and health education services,]
[Moreover, this is done with a focus on disease prevention and patient self-management.]
[It is a fact that patient individuals, once equipped with good, ]
[digestible health information, can be encouraged to make rational health choices]
[and adopt healthy lifestyles and behaviors for themselves.]
[For--and this is very key--it is the patient who has the ultimate responsibility]
[for their own wellness and health.]
[So we see ourselves as partners in their quest for good health,]
[partners and cheerleaders in their quest for good health.]
[With these grant funds and with the GE employee volunteer support,]
[we plan to increase our healthy cooking classes,]
[expand our outreach effort, emphasizing good nutrition and the joy of movement,]
[and at Bed Stuy we aim to assure each patient a transformative experience.]
[As some of you may be aware, over the past two decades ]
[not a single one of our patients with diabetes has required an amputation]
[Over 70% of our patients with diabetes are controlled.]
[First of all, we baptize them in our demonstration kitchen. [chuckling]]
[We have each of them participating in healthy food preparation]
[After that, recognizing that the people who we serve, most of them can't afford a gym,]
[we stress the joy of movement and dance.]
[So we tell them when they are home performing their house chores]
[if they're ironing to move with grace, if they're vacuuming to move with grace,]
[if they are cooking in the kitchen to move with grace,]
[and to dance throughout the house--in the bedroom, all over the place--movement.]
[And you know what? They lose weight. They lose weight.]
[[Ulysses Kilgore - President, Bedford Stuyvesant Family Health Center]]
[So in conclusion, on behalf of the board, the staff, and the patients,]
[we thank the GE Foundation for turning up the notch on the wind beneath our wings]
[and also for recognizing the joy that we find in serving the patients ]
[of Bedford Stuyvesant, Central Brooklyn.]
[And the other thing that I wanted to thank the GE Foundation for]
[is for being the good shepherd. Thank you.]
[We're going to teach the whole GE leadership team the joy of movement as well,]
[so there, Ulysses. [laughter]]
[We have one final announcement.]
[I think it's easy to think about Healthymagination ]
[that's about less expensive devices, information technology.]
[Those are clearly envisioned, [Jeff Immelt - Chairman and CEO, GE]]
[but really the direction in which most of the dollars in healthcare are spent]
[are with trying to prevent chronic disease and treating people that have chronic disease.]
[It's basically done in therapy, and that's 60%-70% of the healthcare dollars]
[in a country like the United States.]
[And one of the holy grails--I would say--of technology]
[has been how can you take diagnostics companies like GE]
[and more fully embed them and partner with therapy companies]
[to make drugs better, to make them more effective, to make them faster.]
[And this is I think one of the new waves of technology in the future--]
[advanced diagnostics partnered with therapy to drive early health]
[And we've had many collaborations with Lilly over the years.]
[We're happy today to really formalize a venture that we've been working on]
[Dr. Gaynor from Lilly is really responsible for oncology research at Lilly.]
[Basically what we're going to talk about today and announce today]
[is really an advancement in what we call molecular pathology,]
[which is the ability to really see proteins and to see the impact ]
[of how drugs are impacting in disease state--in this case, cancer.]
[Typically maybe a drug researcher might be able to see two proteins,]
[which would maybe narrow down the compounds a little bit.]
[With this technology they can see as many as 25 proteins,]
[which again is going to give the tools to the drug discovery side]
[that's going to allow the drugs of the future to be more effective]
[to be able to go to the right patients in a better way.]
[And so we're very proud of the association we have with Lilly,]
[and I thought Dr. Gaynor could give us a description ]
[of what's going on in this collaboration.]
[[Gaynor] Thank you. [applause]]
[What I want to do is thank everyone for coming here today.]
[What I want to talk about briefly is a breakthrough that our two companies]
[I think it's important to say when you take companies with different technologies,]
[different expertise, and you put a good team together who can work together,]
[great things can come about.]
[And I think that's what you hear today.]
[The other comment before going through the slide I want to talk to you about]
[is that it's important when you consider technology as very important,]
[and that's what the real focus of the talk today is.]
[But technology is only as good in healthcare as it is if it's used,]
[if it's cost-effective, and if it helps patients and physicians solve problems.]
[And that's what I think this technology does.]
[I'd like to first remind you of the value of time,]
[especially for millions of people around the world who have been diagnosed with cancer.]
[Those of us who have been working in oncology for a long time]
[are acutely aware of how precious time is for those battling cancer.]
[We need to know more and we need to know more earlier]
[about what therapy will work and really, more importantly, what won't work.]
[And it's not just the patients and their families that need this information.]
[Prescribers, payers, need to know how better to treat patients.]
[There is still much more we can do--and this technology I think is one of them--]
[to improve our treatment of cancer patients.]
[The biopharmaceutical industry has developed highly effective medicines]
[to treat a number of cancers, and I'm proud that Eli Lilly and Company]
[has several important pharmaceuticals on the market that are important for cancer treatment]
[and a very rich pipeline of new molecule so-called targeted therapies]
[to hopefully improve cancer treatment.]
[Lilly's commitment to cancer--again being an important medical need as it is--]
[led us to an agreement two years ago with GE]
[to try to see could we improve diagnostics.]
[Could we develop a technology or technologies to help us better diagnose]
[We hope to develop in vitro diagnostics to measure the activity of drugs in patients]
[and help predict patient response.]
[Through this collaboration we've studied colon cancer and prostate cancers,]
[and we look forward in the future beginning to study breast, ovary, lung,]
[and potentially gastric cancers.]
[I'd like to thank at this time Dr. Jeremy Graff and his coworkers at Lilly]
[and the GE team, who have done just a spectacular job.]
[Currently, for the most part, a cancer diagnosis and decision of treatment]
[is based on histology--microscopic examination of a tumor--]
[and in some cases the expression of one or two biomarkers, as Jeff said.]
[Working together with GE and Lilly, we've developed tissue-based biomarker technology]
[that for the first time enables researchers to look at a map of more than 25 proteins]
[Basically what this does, you can see the different colors there]
[which indicate different networks of protein that are either on or off for cancer.]
[And what you can see is that while a tumor may look the same in the microscope,]
[there's a lot of complexity.]
[So this looks relatively simple, but what GE has done is taken millions of data points]
[and put these together into pattern recognition ]
[to allow you to see something like that quantitated,]
[and potentially base decisions on this.]
[It's really what I think to be a very important technology.]
[We think that this technology will enable us to measure, evaluate,]
[and predict responses to therapeutic intervention.]
[For example, as you can see, we can tell which pathways are on or off]
[and really at a very early stage kind of diagnose and direct therapy]
[to the right patients based on this. ]
[We think that it will accelerate drug development,]
[reduce the number of patients in clinical trials,]
[the amount of time to complete the trials, and ultimately cost,]
[and that's one of the things we have to do for society.]
[It'll help us bring innovative therapies to patients faster]
[and to bring these to market.]
[There is a tremendous unmet need, as all of us know,]
[and anything that can help us reduce cost and get therapies to patients better]
[I think are really important.]
[Our hope is that this technology will one day give prescribers the information they need]
[to make better decisions, give patients the ability to know what dose, what drug,]
[and when they need a therapy, and save payers money]
[as physicians really can direct therapy better.]
[Lilly hopes to introduce this technology into ongoing clinical trials]
[as soon as this next summer.]
[We are hopeful this technology will represent a significant breakthrough ]
[and ultimately enable healthcare providers to find the right dose of the drugs,]
[give the right medicine at the right time,]
[and basically help patients in their treatment of cancer.]
[And so we're very excited about this and appreciate Jeff for inviting me today.]
[So with that, I think we've got time for some questions from the media.]
[We can direct them to whoever you'd like. Do we have any?]
[[inaudible audience question]]
[[Immelt] I'm sorry. I couldn't hear.]
[[female audience member] How does GE want to benefit from the healthcare reform?]
[[Immelt] How do we want to benefit? ]
[Tom, do you want to take that one? [laughs]]
[I think the healthcare reform is still a work in process.]
[I think there potentially are more people in the system, right?]
[There is going to be changes in reimbursement or device taxes yet to be seen,]
[and there is some capital put into the stimulus ]
[for healthcare information technology and things like that.]
[So how that all washes through in healthcare reform]
[I think still remains to be seen.]
[The bigger thing I would remind people is that most of the healthcare dollar]
[in the US is really set by chronic disease, by patients that are sick in the system,]
[and that still remains to be one of the things that has to be addressed]
[in terms of how do you change the overall shape of the healthcare ]
[if it's going to be based on chronic disease and preventing disease,]
[making people live healthier lifestyles.]
[And ultimately, that shapes the focus on healthcare costs more than anything else.]
[You said you were making some changes for the first time in 20 years]
[to the benefits regarding the workers. ]
[Can you give us some detail of what you're doing?]
[[Immelt] Sure. In principle what we're trying to do ]
[is work on all of the elements of healthcare.]
[So we're trying to work on the prevention side and wellness side]
[in terms of training people on health, on the impact of smoking,]
[rewarding healthy lifestyles, having access to fitness centers,]
[all of the prevention that are in the healthcare plan being free.]
[So that's the wellness piece.]
[The second thing we're doing is, some of us old industrial guys,]
[had experience with what was called the Voluntary Protection Program]
[that OSHA launched about 20 years ago.]
[We're going to drive a similar program, led by John Rice in the company,]
[to go to each one of the 600 sites in the US]
[and really correlate on a healthcare plan that we can share best practices in the system.]
[We're going to work with our own employees ]
[to make them better consumers of healthcare,]
[so more of a consumer-driven healthcare plan versus a co-pay type of a plan.]
[And the last thing is we have to work in the GE cities]
[to make our providers more economical.]
[So we've got to be willing to invest in our core providers]
[to work with them to improve quality and cost.]
[And if you do those four things on a two and a half billion dollar cost base,]
[which is really what our employee and retiree cost base is,]
[we think over time we can make the inflation of healthcare]
[I think wherever reform goes in the next couple weeks,]
[this country still needs employers to be very good stewards of their employees]
[to help make them more productive and to control our own costs.]
[And we at GE are very dedicated in that regard.]
[Hi. Do you have a cost reduction goal for the employee plan?]
[You talk about hitting CPI. Is there some kind of time frame you're looking at?]
[I think we want to do the groundwork, and we want to do it right,]
[and I think it's very important.]
[But I just think that there's not any other cost that we have inside GE]
[where we wouldn't expect our long-term goal to be equal to the CPI--]
[whatever else we were doing.]
[So I think what we want to make sure is that it's a wellness-based plan first]
[but that we basically want to be a best in class company ]
[as it pertains to healthcare costs.]
[And there are a lot of people to learn from--Steve Burd at Safeway.]
[There's a lot of experiments going on in the business community,]
[and that's some of the stuff we talked about with Bill Brody ]
[and with Bill Frist and Tom Daschle today]
[is how does the business community take the next step.]
[I think whatever happens in reform, there's going to be something post-reform]
[that the business community has to be right in front of.]
[And we want to be right there.]
[Hello. My name is Matthias Wolf. I'm with the "Financial Times" in Germany.]
[As a German journalist, every GE story at the same time is a Siemens story for us,]
[The first one is, when it comes to technology, ]
[how do you see your position compared to the position of Siemens on the market right now?]
[And the second question is, as an American company,]
[do you have any advantage when it comes to big deals in the US]
[Or do you say that for foreign rivals they have the same chances?]
[[Immelt] I just couldn't hear the second part.]
[I think the first part it's safe to say that we're much better than Siemens]
[at everything we do. [laughter]]
[So I think that's actually the easiest part of the question. [laughs]]
[Second question: On the American market,]
[you are an American company; you're based here.]
[Is there an advantage when it comes to rivalry against Siemens and other companies?]
[I think that's actually a great question.]
[Our future is in the US but it's also on a global basis,]
[and so I'm not sure if it gives us an advantage or a disadvantage]
[vis-a-vis this healthcare system because it's so different than all the healthcare systems]
[But I think one of the things that Bill and Tom and the rest of the group talked about today]
[is the fact that we need to be funding 20 or 25 experiments about healthcare systems]
[and that a lot of those experiments are going to be outside of the United States.]
[So I actually think this system is different and we need to be driving experiments]
[in the rest of the world so that we can learn more effectively what goes on.]
[The last thing I'd say is Gerhard is from Germany, ]
[so we have a German member of the advisory board,]
[and the German system is quite good.]
[The costs, as a percentage of GDP, are 8% or something like that,]
[and the quality outcomes are pretty good,]
[and so there's a lot to learn from the rest of the world.]
[Hi there. Good morning, Jeff. Good afternoon. I'm sorry.]
[Can you provide some more details on the ECIS system, ]
[the clinical decision support system that's going to be--]
[I guess we're going to get more details in the spring--]
[but perhaps maybe on the side of integration with other GE IT technologies]
[as well as those of other vendors?]
[The key for ECIS is going to be that it should be able to sit on top of anybody's EMR.]
[We've worked with Intermountain Health, who is well-known]
[in terms of both their IT capability and their clinical care.]
[We've also worked with the Mayo Clinic on standards of care.]
[So basically this should sit on top of anybody's EMR.]
[It's based on protocols that are, in the beginning, developed by those two hospital systems]
[but eventually by more collaboration.]
[And basically I think the story in healthcare goes]
[that from the time something goes from being a best practice]
[to being a standard of care in healthcare,]
[And so this is the way that information technology and, more importantly,]
[clinical data helps accelerate that into immediacy,]
[so that a 200-bed hospital in Columbia, Missouri,]
[can have the same protocols as Mayo Clinic or other hospitals.]
[But then eventually, I think all of information technology has got to plug in to]
[personalized medicine, genomics.]
[And so we just have to keep going up the food chain in healthcare IT.]
[Hello. Could you get into more details on the partnership with Lilly]
[in terms of what investment both companies are putting in]
[and where the research is going on, how many scientists are working on it?]
[Maybe I'll do a little bit and then ask Richard to do some.]
[Right now it's really a collaboration between our Global Research Center]
[and the collaborators in Lilly, so it's very much an R&D collaboration today.]
[I think Eli Lilly is furthest ahead in being able to drive this across the drugs]
[that are currently in its pipeline.]
[And then I think we envision working together in some ways]
[to work with other biotech companies in the drug development process]
[and rolling it out more broadly across the industry.]
[[Gaynor] I don't have too much more to add.]
[We're looking to formalize and extend this agreement in the near future.]
[But, I'd say between the two companies--I don't know a number--]
[somewhere between 30-40 scientists are working on this in total.]
[A lot of informatics people too.]
[And so we'll formalize this hopefully very, very soon to extend this]
[and to get things into clinical trials.]
[[Immelt] Maybe one more. Yeah.]
[Good afternoon. Mario Platero with the financial daily in Italy,]
[I'd like to go back to the healthcare reform if you don't mind]
[and how a corporation like yours--]
[You mentioned that after this healthcare reform will be done]
[there will be some challenges.]
[So the question is, can you go a little bit more into more details]
[on what kind of challenges do you see,]
[on which is about to be voted in the Senate?]
[Do you think it will be good for business?]
[[Immelt] Let me maybe have Tom and then Bill comment on the first part of the question,]
[which is maybe what happens after some healthcare reform happens.]
[And then maybe I'll answer the second part of the question.]
[[Tom Daschle - Former Senate Majority Leader]]
[as you know there are five different versions that are now being merged into two,]
[is that in all the versions they have a very slow implementation phase.]
[In part to address sort of the intent of your question,]
[how does one prepare for perhaps a transformational moment in health reform?]
[So most of the implementation centers around the date 2013]
[to give us an opportunity to ramp up and to be prepared.]
[But I think in all cases, the real issue comes to the degree to which we're going to solve]
[the three challenges of health reform.]
[One is insurance reform, the second is payment reform,]
[and the third is delivery reform.]
[And to the extent that we can do those three things we will be in a better position to know]
[just what kind of evolution and what kind of adaptation is necessary.]
[But certainly businesses are going to be right in the heart of all of this]
[as they assess its impact on their employees as well as their business plans.]
[I think it's a good question in terms of what's the impact.]
[And as Tom said, there are five bills out there, each about a thousand pages,]
[so we don't know what the bill will be.]
[[Bill Frist, M.D. - Former Senate Majority Leader] You mentioned the Baucus bill.]
[We know it's not going to be the Baucus bill.]
[The Baucus bill will be maybe a third of it or maybe half of it in the bill,]
[but it'll be married with another bill in the Senate]
[and then it will be married with all the Obama proposals,]
[which a lot of them haven't been seen,]
[and then it'll be married with three bills in the House.]
[So we don't know. No way to answer it.]
[What we do know is that, in all likelihood, a bill will pass in late December,]
[and you've got to be ready to eat crushed glass]
[any time you look into a crystal ball.]
[So we don't know what it's going to be, but I would predict that a bill will pass,]
[and it will be another $1.5 trillion, I predict, coming into our healthcare system,]
[and the bill I hope that is being developed, which we don't know]
[because we haven't seen it yet, will be a bill that focuses on value,]
[a bill that gets away from just doing more stuff, volume reimbursement,]
[but more in terms of value being what we're competing on,]
[what the consumer looks at, and hopefully what our government looks at.]
[And then that does bring companies like GE, who are premiere in terms of innovation,]
[in terms of creativity, in terms of dynamism, ]
[in terms of looking five years ahead to say what is going to be needed,]
[so that we'll have better outcomes, better performance, better measurements,]
[better metrics for every dollar invested.]
[So I think companies--again not GE necessarily, but companies like GE--]
[who focus on health services through prevention--exactly what Jeff outlined--]
[prevention, care, treatment, being held accountable,]
[They are going to do very well because they do bring value.]
[And, again, I predict--and Tom and I, we're not sure, we won't go back and forth--]
[but we don't know a bill is going to pass, but in all likelihood a bill will pass]
[that will be at least $1.5 trillion over a 10-year period coming into the system]
[focused, I hope, around value.]
[I think business on these tough topics never speaks with one voice.]
[I would say as a participant in the healthcare industry,]
[we're going to plan our business to be successful ]
[almost no matter where the reform goes.]
[You've got to remember a company like ours that's more than a $17 billion]
[global healthcare business, we do business in single-payer countries,]
[we do business in China, India.]
[We are able to span across every healthcare system in the world.]
[There's not one we haven't seen and can't adjust to.]
[So I think we're going to look to see cost, quality, access.]
[We've positioned ourselves, and let's see where the reform goes.]
[As an employer, this is a system.]
[I think this is a huge system problem,]
[and so we care a lot about things like cost shifting and things like that]
[And so what really matters is, does the overall cost of the system go down.]
[And the only way you're going to get that is by really thinking about this]
[as an integrated issue and not by an isolated issue.]
[My sense is that once reform passes--and I have no knowledge,]
[but I trust what Bill and Tom say--]
[we've got to sit down and figure out how to fit our healthcare program to be effective]
[into whatever that is because it is an integrated challenge]
[and we need that kind of solution to it.]
[So maybe one last one and then we'll...]
[I'm a reporter for Japanese Newswire.]
[I've taken a look at some of the equipment on display here,]
[and I'm just wondering how much demand there is really for such equipment]
[in countries like India and China.]
[I know that the middle class is growing in those countries,]
[but maybe there are many other things, like bridges and cars, they have to buy ]
[before they are going to buy such equipment.]
[I think this isn't meant to be an exhaustive set of all the products]
[that are in China and India.]
[Our business in China is getting close to a billion dollars ]
[in the types of products and services you see here.]
[Our business in India is probably in the $300 to $400 million range.]
[Both of them are growing 20% plus a year.]
[And in many ways that's where one of the big future thrusts of our company is going to be.]
[And the advantage of a company like GE is we can take ideas]
[that are developed in China and India and bring them back here and vice versa]
[in terms of where the future is going to be.]
[Cost, quality, and access has as much meaning in China ]
[as it does in the United States--maybe more.]
[So great questions. Thanks for being here today.]
[I want to thank again all of our panel and thank you for coming.]
[I hope you stay around, and if anybody wants to order a Vscan, I'm available.]
