GE Healthcare completes acquisition of IDX

GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company, has completed its acquisition of health IT specialist IDX Systems Corporation.

The deal $1.2 billion (£681 million) was first announced in September last year.

IDX is one of the key software providers to the English NHS National Programme for IT, in which, as a sub-contractor to BT, it is due to provide its clinical software to hospitals across London.

GE Healthcare, is an international leader in medical imaging, healthcare services, life sciences and information technology. The company says that the acquisition of IDX will create a leading healthcare IT vendor "with one of the most comprehensive suites of clinical, imaging and business information systems available".

According to GE the deal will enable it to accelerate efforts to connect the full range of community and hospital clinicians through comprehensive, enterprise-wide electronic health record (EHR) solutions, to support safe, efficient and cost-effective patient care.

"The combination of these two companies positions GE as a leading provider of global healthcare information solutions and, by further enabling the integration of our customers’ IT systems, enhances our ability to help them streamline healthcare costs, reduce medical errors and enhance and improve the quality of patient care," said Joe Hogan, president and CEO of GE Healthcare.

Vishal Wanchoo, president and CEO of GE Healthcare’s Information Technologies business, will lead the combined business. GE Healthcare’s IT business will have its global headquarters in Barrington, Illinois.

"GE’s acquisition of IDX allows us to provide new and more comprehensive ways for healthcare practitioners to manage the explosion of data that has emerged from the healthcare industry," said Wanchoo.

Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $15 billion unit of General Electric Company (GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 43,000 people.