While new technologies grabbed many of the headlines during the launch last month of GE’s $6 billion healthymagination initiative, one of the strategy’s linchpins doesn’t involve R&D or breakthrough products at all. It’s the formation of an objective healthymagination advisory board. That newly expanded group — a mix of respected names from medicine, research, academia, business and government — is the initiative’s frontline eyes and ears about new issues, problems and solutions in healthcare. It’s also the body that will ensure that GE’s healthymagination actions live up to our commitments.
The board members were selected because they are uniquely qualified to simultaneously provide firsthand insight — and a much needed reality check. For example, Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty heads a cardiac care hospital in Bangalore, India. His surgical skills give him firsthand knowledge of doctors’ high-tech needs in the E.R. At the same time, his geographic location provides him with an invaluable, personalized view of what doctors across India may need in rural or underserved healthcare settings and the types of technologies that can provide the biggest bang for the lowest buck.
Likewise, because of healthymagination’s global scope, newly added board member James Kondo brings a unique perspective from his efforts in healthcare reform in Japan. He has hands-on experience as vice chairman of the think tank, Health Policy Institute, Japan, as an associate professor at the University of Tokyo and as a member of key government and business committees in Japan focused on healthcare.
New board member Newt Gingrich — a former Speaker of the House, author, college history professor, and founder of the Center for Health Transformation — comes literally having written a book on the future of healthcare. But he’s also renowned for being a pragmatist who’s unafraid to fight current dogma — or policymakers of any political stripe. His experience, insight, and reputation for not backing down from taking tough issues to a public stage are tailor made to navigating the problems and solutions in a broken healthcare system — and for keeping healthymagination true to its goals.
Says Speaker Gingrinch: “As major health reform continues to be a priority for all Americans, we must find solutions that improve quality, reduce costs and increase access. GE realizes the importance of bringing together policymakers, industry experts, government leaders and the private sector to collaborate in achieving these goals. It’s an honor to serve on the healthymagination board, and I look forward to the challenging work ahead.”
Another form of unique oversight brought to the board comes from Dr. Bill Frist — who fuses both legislative expertise and operating room skills as he was the Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate but has also been in the healthcare trenches as a heart and lung transplant surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, Stanford University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Frist, who’s also Chairman of Hope Though Healing Hands, a nonprofit that takes on global health issues, said his reason for being on the board is a practical one, “Partnerships of government, business and nonprofits synergistically tear down barriers to better health for children and adults around the world,” he said.
And with a key driver of healthymaginition being technology, Dr. William R. Brody, a physician and scientist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, brings an inventor’s eye to the innovation at the heart of the strategy. He spent years in biomedical engineering and in developing advancements in the medical instrumentation field — gaining two patents and founding three medical instrumentation companies in the process. Dr. Brody brings a unique understanding of the need to temper innovation with what’s feasible, doable and deployable. And from his 12 years as president of Johns Hopkins University, he understands the role that university training and research will play as changes in the healthcare system take root.
And these are just five of the board’s 10 members. You can learn more about each board member by clicking the photos above.
* Visit healthymagination.com
* Read GE Reports’ coverage of the launch
* Watch a video of Newt Gingrich and Tom Daschle at the National Press Club
* Try out GE’s health visualizer
* See videos about our health initiatives
As part of the ongoing global launch of GE’s healthymagination initiative, GE Healthcare hosted its first Turkey and Central Asia Media Summit in Istanbul on June 11 to spotlight regional healthcare needs.
* Read the first person post from GE’s Richard di Benedetto
* Learn more about the Istanbul summit
* Read Forbes’ story about GE’s investments in Turkey
