BARRINGTON, IL – GE Healthcare has entered into a partnership with InterComponentWare, Inc., to integrate, develop and expand their health information exchange solutions.

“Connectivity is one of the biggest challenges in healthcare today and it directly impacts the quality and cost of patient care,” said Vishal Wanchoo, president and CEO of Barrington, Ill.-based GE Healthcare IT. “Our strategic relationship with ICW enables GE Healthcare to accelerate our Centricity connectivity solutions and further extend our global capabilities.”

With this collaboration, GE Healthcare and Wayne, Pa.-based ICW plan to leverage pre-existing solutions as well as co-develop new products to expand the offerings in the HIE and the ehealth marketplace.

One of the focuses of this collaboration will be the expansion of GE Healthcare’s Centricity Health Information Exchange service technology, communication tools and patient connectivity. GE Healthcare, with the support of ICW, also plans to improve the solution’s security and interoperability capabilities in order to improve implementation time.

Centricity Health Information Exchange services is designed to improve access to clinical data for exchange between hospitals, physician offices and other healthcare facilities and organizations. As a result, healthcare delivery organizations are enabled to create a safe exchange to share patient clinical information.

Increased access to patient data is expected help lower the cost of care and improve the quality of care provided. GE Healthcare and ICW expect that this collaboration and expansion of their solutions will help achieve this goal.