Microsoft, GE announce several developments for planned joint venture

General Electric Co. (GE), through its healthcare IT business, and Microsoft Corp. today announced several developments for their planned 50-50 joint venture, including the intention to demonstrate future product capabilities at HIMSS12, the year's largest healthcare IT trade show, later this month. The new company, to be named Caradigm^™, is expected to launch in the first half of 2012, pending regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

Caradigm will be aimed at driving a paradigm shift in the delivery of care by enabling health systems and professionals to use real-time, systemwide intelligence to improve healthcare quality and the patient experience. Upon formation, the new company will develop and market an open, interoperable technology platform and collaborative clinical applications focused on enabling better population health management to improve outcomes and the economics of health and wellness.

Microsoft and GE Healthcare are also announcing several Caradigm leaders who will serve under CEO-designate Michael Simpson once the new company is formed. Named leaders are the following:

• Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President, Product Strategy: Dr. Brandon Savage, currently chief medical officer, GE Healthcare IT
• Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President, Engineering: Neal Singh, currently general manager of Microsoft Dynamics AX Global Financial Management
• Chief Operating Officer: Nigel Mason, currently director, GE Healthcare Commercial Centre of Excellence
• Chief People Officer: Tami Lamp, currently senior HR director, Microsoft
• General Counsel and Vice President: Warren Ratliff, currently chief counsel, GE Healthcare IT Knowledge & Connectivity Solutions

Caradigm's board of directors will include executives from GE Healthcare and Microsoft:

• John Dineen, president and CEO, GE Healthcare
• Jan de Witte, president and CEO, GE Healthcare IT and Performance Solutions
• Kirill Tatarinov, president, Microsoft Business Solutions Division
• Amy Hood, corporate vice president and CFO, Microsoft Business Division

"We have an exciting opportunity to transform healthcare globally with an established open platform and a new generation of applications focused on population health," Simpson said. "Around the world, delivery system reforms and payment model changes are requiring healthcare providers to integrate data across silos of care delivery to enable better care coordination and performance improvement. We're founding Caradigm to meet the changing needs of health and healthcare across the globe."

The two parent companies bring complementary expertise to this new venture and will contribute intellectual property, including the following:

• Microsoft Amalga, an enterprise health intelligence platform
• Microsoft Vergence, a single sign-on and context management solution
• Microsoft expreSSO, an enterprise single sign-on solution
• GE Healthcare eHealth, a Health Information Exchange
• GE Healthcare Qualibria, a clinical knowledge application environment being developed in cooperation with Intermountain Healthcare (Salt Lake City) and the Mayo Clinic

GE Healthcare and Microsoft intend to demonstrate future product capabilities that will be available from Caradigm at this month's HIMSS12 conference in Las Vegas. Demonstrations are being scheduled in both the GE Healthcare (No. 2635) and Microsoft (No. 1629) booths. In addition, Caradigm's future leadership team will host media and analysts on Tuesday, Feb. 21, from 6–7:30 p.m. in Room 101, Sands Expo Convention Center.