General Electric Co. and Microsoft Corp. said Wednesday they've teamed up to launch a new company that will develop an open software platform allowing in-house teams and third-party developers to create a "new generation" of health care applications.
The two corporate behemoths hope the new technology can pool data to fight some of the problems plaguing the industry, such as costly, preventable health care-associated infections, while breaking down "silos" where health data are currently trapped.
"This industry needs a Windows-like platform," Microsoft's health solutions group Peter Neupert said, according to The New York Times.
On the Microsoft blog, Nate McLemore, general manager of the health solutions group, said the new venture hasn't been named and still awaits regulatory approval. It will be headquartered near Microsoft's main campus in Redmond, Wash., and led by Mike Simpson of GE.
