GE Healthcare ($GE) is betting that a more than $1 billion investment over 5 years to train more than 2 million global healthcare providers will pay off. In developed economies, it's looking to ingratiate itself by offering options for improving efficiency as the demand for value-based healthcare looms, while in emerging economies it hopes to establish itself firmly as more people are able to receive basic healthcare.
The program expects to engage physicians, radiologists, technologists, midwives, nurses, biomedical engineers and other healthcare providers and educate them on clinical, product and other technical advances. The idea is to provide training tailored to help them to better meet local needs, with GE products--of course.
"Challenges around localized capacity building, training and innovation are consistent themes for many healthcare systems and Ministries of Health around the world," said GE Healthcare President and CEO John Flannery in a statement. "We will continue to work closely with local governments, institutions and customers to address some of their most important concerns. In some countries, this will mean training midwives to use new ultrasound or portable diagnostic equipment. In others, it will include supporting multi-hospital networks to enhance their clinical and operational outcomes."
The program will offer online and remote training mostly as part of a commercial customer relationship to improve healthcare provider skills in clinical situations. This could include training in areas including involving key opinion leaders, virtual video conferencing, clinical products, biomedical and technical, as well as leadership.
The new program expands upon GE Healthcare's existing training initiatives, which include an effort to train 100,000 healthcare providers in India; a $14.7 million investment in its first-ever healthcare skills advancement center in Kenya; a $100 million commitment to training in Africa, Turkey, the Middle East, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States; a program with the Chinese Medical Doctor Association that has trained more than 6,500 rural doctors since 2011 via guest lectures; and a training collaboration in Brazil in which it invested $3.5 million since 2012.
GE Healthcare has a leadership center in Crotonville, NY, from which its global training programs stem. It also has a training institute in King Fahad Medical City in Saudi Arabia that it established in 2013 at a customer site.
"It's clear to us that the skills of healthcare professionals using medical equipment are at least as impactful on the resulting outcomes, as the quality of the product itself," said GE Healthcare's GM for global education services, Mario Lois, in a statement. "Healthcare providers will be able to embrace new GE education solutions, to better train their staff, optimize equipment use, and ultimately improve patient care."
"Our focus is to develop meaningful, relevant education solutions that will help healthcare professionals create long-term value and positive measurable impact," he added.
- here is the release
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