Innovating for the Future of Healthcare: What GE Healthcare is Doing

Karl Blight is the general manager of GE Healthcare UK and wrote this article for the Guardian.

Innovation and GE have been synonymous ever since the company was founded by Thomas Edison who aligned several businesses to bring innovation to the marketplace. He called the resulting organisation Edison General Electric Company, which in 1892 merged with a competitor to form General Electric Company.

From commercial light bulbs to early x-ray machines, and right through to the world's first high definition MR system, pioneering innovation has been the platform on which GE has grown.

Perhaps more than many other industries, healthcare desperately needs innovation to meet the serious challenges and demands it now faces. An ageing population, rising obesity and rising chronic disease provide the backdrop to global healthcare today.

In 2009, GE committed to tackle global healthcare challenges through an initiative we called 'healthymagination', where we innovate to provide better health for more people by improving quality, access and affordability.

Read more about what GE Healthcare is doing for the future of innovation on the Guardian.