In late 2011, MSFT and GE had announced plans for a healthcare product called “Caradigm”, which would use Microsoft’s IT expertise and GE’s expertise in healthcare. More recently, the two have come together to start working on this project.
This coming together of the two giants of their respective industries, IT for Microsoft, and healthcare infrastructure for GE, is good news for healthcare providers as well as patients because its goals are to cut costs so that healthcare providers can more easily track patient data and information.
Since both companies have a 50% stake in Caradigm, we can expect both the partners to be actively involved to make the best product possible. Microsoft’s capability to develop data platforms, as seen in its dominance in the server market and GE’s capabilities in the healthcare industry are a perfect fit to provide a combined data solution in the healthcare industry. CEO of GE, Michael Simpson, was of the view that the two companies can provide a better solution by working together rather than going solo.
But what is Caradigm? It is a solution to one of the biggest problems for healthcare providers: that of organizing and managing the huge data that is generated due to the patients that they process and serve every day. Caradigm will help health providers as they assist and help patients receive care, even when the patient is served from more than one location. In the present, patient data is processed more or less manually, which is inefficient as well as costly. The goal of Caradigm is to do the same job better, and also save money for the health providers, a cost saving which can be expected to be passed on to the patients.
As MSFT & GE join hands, doctors and nurses will be able to serve their patients without having to sift through numerous files. Information retrieval for any patient will be easier, which will make for faster service too. The system will also allow healthcare providers to accumulate data from more than one source and store and access it as a unified whole. Less staff will be required to manage patient data, which will cut costs for healthcare providers. The end result will be a better quality of service to patients at a more accessible cost.
The main problem faced by healthcare providers is correctly categorizing a patient’s records during digitization. Though providers try their hardest to categorize and store information in the best possible way, problems arise when patients shift to a different facility. Other providers require an information sorting system that can work across the many different types of information systems that they use. With Caradigm, they can store their information in one place and sort and access it as desired.
To make it possible for providers to access information from more than one system, Microsoft has already purchased some of the leading data management systems in the healthcare industry. It has already acquired expreSSO, Amalga and Vergeance, three of the more popular data management systems in the healthcare industry. On the other hand, GE has acquired Qualibria and EHealth. GE has announced that it will combine Qualibria and EHealth into Amalga systems.
This joint venture of Microsoft and GE is at its early stages right now, so we cannot say how effective it will actually prove to be. Presently, offices for Caradigm are situated in many different cities, including Andover, Salt Lake City and Chevy Chase, Maryland. One fourth of the current 600 employees working on Caradigm are working in Bellevue, which is the company headquarters. The new company plans to increase its employee headcount by 25% over the next few months.
Executives from Microsoft and GE have said that they formed a new company for this project to avoid clashes in work culture that may result if the two companies worked directly with each other. We can only hope that it works, and that the new enterprise is able to provide a solution that can ease the workload of healthcare providers.
The healthcare industry will take some time to get used to a single provider of data management system, but if Microsoft and GE are able to accomplish what they have set out to do, we should soon see many providers move to Caradigm as their data management system of choice.
This coming together of the two giants of their respective industries, IT for Microsoft, and healthcare infrastructure for GE, is good news for healthcare providers as well as patients because its goals are to cut costs so that healthcare providers can more easily track patient data and information.
Since both companies have a 50% stake in Caradigm, we can expect both the partners to be actively involved to make the best product possible. Microsoft’s capability to develop data platforms, as seen in its dominance in the server market and GE’s capabilities in the healthcare industry are a perfect fit to provide a combined data solution in the healthcare industry. CEO of GE, Michael Simpson, was of the view that the two companies can provide a better solution by working together rather than going solo.
But what is Caradigm? It is a solution to one of the biggest problems for healthcare providers: that of organizing and managing the huge data that is generated due to the patients that they process and serve every day. Caradigm will help health providers as they assist and help patients receive care, even when the patient is served from more than one location. In the present, patient data is processed more or less manually, which is inefficient as well as costly. The goal of Caradigm is to do the same job better, and also save money for the health providers, a cost saving which can be expected to be passed on to the patients.
As MSFT & GE join hands, doctors and nurses will be able to serve their patients without having to sift through numerous files. Information retrieval for any patient will be easier, which will make for faster service too. The system will also allow healthcare providers to accumulate data from more than one source and store and access it as a unified whole. Less staff will be required to manage patient data, which will cut costs for healthcare providers. The end result will be a better quality of service to patients at a more accessible cost.
The main problem faced by healthcare providers is correctly categorizing a patient’s records during digitization. Though providers try their hardest to categorize and store information in the best possible way, problems arise when patients shift to a different facility. Other providers require an information sorting system that can work across the many different types of information systems that they use. With Caradigm, they can store their information in one place and sort and access it as desired.
To make it possible for providers to access information from more than one system, Microsoft has already purchased some of the leading data management systems in the healthcare industry. It has already acquired expreSSO, Amalga and Vergeance, three of the more popular data management systems in the healthcare industry. On the other hand, GE has acquired Qualibria and EHealth. GE has announced that it will combine Qualibria and EHealth into Amalga systems.
This joint venture of Microsoft and GE is at its early stages right now, so we cannot say how effective it will actually prove to be. Presently, offices for Caradigm are situated in many different cities, including Andover, Salt Lake City and Chevy Chase, Maryland. One fourth of the current 600 employees working on Caradigm are working in Bellevue, which is the company headquarters. The new company plans to increase its employee headcount by 25% over the next few months.
Executives from Microsoft and GE have said that they formed a new company for this project to avoid clashes in work culture that may result if the two companies worked directly with each other. We can only hope that it works, and that the new enterprise is able to provide a solution that can ease the workload of healthcare providers.
The healthcare industry will take some time to get used to a single provider of data management system, but if Microsoft and GE are able to accomplish what they have set out to do, we should soon see many providers move to Caradigm as their data management system of choice.
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