Alliance Facilitates Hospital Network Transactions

ByDeborah Austin The diagnostic imaging products and services of GE Medical Systems, Waukesha, Wis. -- an $8 billion business of General Electric Co. -- soon will appear on Internet health-care supply-chain solution Marketplace@Novation. Under an agreement with supply-chain-management company Novation, which offers Marketplace@Novation -- and supply-chain-solution company Neoforma Inc., which powers it -- GE Medical Systems will offer its complete portfolio of products, including the Discovery LS combination positron emission tomography and computed tomography system, and Innova digital X-ray cardiovascular system. All should be online within 12 months. Marketplace@Novation serves suppliers and hospitals of the Volunteer Hospitals of America (VHA) and UHC (University HealthSystem Consortium) health-care alliances. It has 115 participating manufacturers and distributors -- including Johnson & Johnson and Abbott Laboratories -- and 533 contracted hospitals. GE Medical Systems has long-term strategic partnerships with VHA and UHC.