Bringing Bad Things to
Life
The alliance between GE
Medical Systems and NYPresbyterian Hospital
Martin Donohoe
The Partners
NY-Presbyterian Hospital
 one of the largest academic health
care institutions in the U.S.
GE Medical Systems
 Subsidiary of General Electric
 $9 billion annual revenues
The Agreement
10-year, $500 million agreement
requires NYP to purchase products
and services from GEMS in exchange
for purported discounts on medical
supplies and the promise of
enhanced technological
standardization and simplification
General Electric
World’s largest company by market
share
2007 revenues of $168 billion
 Greater than the GDP of more than
2/3 of U.N. member states
2008 net after-tax profits of $17 billion
General Electric
Makes household appliances, plastics,
lighting, and medical equipment

Plastics division, which produced bisphenol A,
spun off in 2008
Produces jet engines and military
hardware
Has built 91 nuclear power plants in 11
countries
General Electric
Operates coal-burning power plants
 Major releasers of toxic mercury
Operates a financial services group
Owns a $43 billion media empire
 Including NBC, Telemundo, and
Universal Studios
GE’s History
Conducted unethical human subject
experiments on prisoners, involving
testicular irradiation, from 1940s to 1960s
Intentionally-released excessive radiation
from its Hanford, WA nuclear reactor in the
1980s, to determine how far it would travel
 May have contributed to increased
thyroid cancer risk in “Downwinders”
GE’s Record
America’s largest corporate polluter
75 Superfund sites nationwide
13 in NY
GE’s Record
Between 1947 and 1977, two of its
capacitor manufacturing plants dumped
1.3 million pounds of PCBs into the
Hudson River
 Probable human carcinogens with
adverse effects on liver, kidney, nervous
system, and reproductive organs (EPA)
 200 mi of Hudson Superfund site
GE’s Record
Has spent millions to avoid Hudson
cleanup and to weaken or eliminate
Superfund Law
Contributes to corporate front groups


Promulgate an anti-scientific and pseudoscientific agenda
Conduct media disinformation campaigns in
an attempt to weaken health and
environmental regulations
GE’s Record
Signed licensing agreement with Cornell Medical
School in 2001 re CT scan technologies to
screen for lung cancer
Cornell Research Foundation funding primarily
from the Vector Group (parent company =
Liggett = tobacco company)
Antonio Gotto (Cornell Medical School Dean)
and Arthur Mahon (Vice Chairman of Colleg
Board of Overseers) on Foundation’s Board of
Directors
GE’s Record
Dean Gotto stated Cornell publicly disclosed the
Vector Group’s role in funding the Foundation

However, searches via google and Cornell’s own
search engine turn up no such disclosure, and
Cornell’s press office did not respond to inquiry re the
original disclosure
Foundation funded EL-CAP study (NEJM),
which concluded that screening asymptomatic
smokers for lung cancer can detect curable
tumors

Controversial finding, contradicted by other studies
GE’s Record
Vector Group/Liggett’s role as funding source
not mentioned in original article, in violation of
conflict of interest disclosure policy
Patents and royalties from GE technology not
noted either
Large profit potentials for GE (increased
screening) and Liggett (reassured smokers less
likely to quit)
For references, see http://phsj.org/wpcontent/uploads/2008/05/elcap-vector-cornellcoi-bioethics-listserv-posts-4-08.doc
GE’s Record
Tremendous influence of environmental,
energy, and health policy
Spent over $19 million on lobbying in 2008
Many member’s of board of directors have
government ties
GE’s Record
Has eliminated 150,000 jobs in last
15 years
 While receiving billions in federal
contracts and millions in state and
local subsidies
One of nation’s top out-sourcers of
jobs
GE’s Record
Continues to under-fund employee
pension plan, despite very generous
compensation packages for
executives
Continues to shift health care costs
onto workers, despite growing profits
GE’s Record
Cited by Human Rights Watch for
“systematic workers’ rights violations”
in the U.S. and abroad
858 OSHA workplace citations from
1990-2001
Investments include for-profit prison
enterprises
GE’s Record
Topped 2002 Project on Government
Oversight’s list of repeat offenders for
defrauding U.S. taxpayers


Paid more than $982 million in fines,
judgments, and out-of-court settlements
between 1990 and 2002
Financial services division fined $100 million
for unfair debt collection practices and
bankruptcy court malfeasance
GE and Corporate Taxes
GE topped the list of corporate
tax break recipients from 20012003:
 $9.5 billion in tax breaks
Under investigation for tax
evasion in Brazil
GE’s Record
In 1990s, Pentagon’s Defense
Contract Management Agency
created special investigations office
specifically for GE
Nevertheless, company has been
awarded increasingly costly
reconstruction contracts in Iraq and
Afghanistan
GE’s Record
The Patient Channel
 Shown in hospital rooms throughout
country
 Advertising vehicle for drug
companies
 Criticized by JCAHO for
manipulative marketing practices
GE’s Record
Produces an electronic medical record,
Centricity EMR
Is hoping to receive some of the $19 billion
earmarked for health care information
technology in the current economic
stimulus package.
Concerns About the Agreement
Provides GE with financial incentives
to promote high technology
purchases
Hospital prohibited from purchasing
more effective equipment from other
companies
Concerns About the Agreement
Augments trend in academic medical
centers to promote the use of expensive,
high-technology care at expense of
preventive care and public health
measures


Highly reimbursable
Services may be redundant in certain
locations
Concerns About the Agreement
Occurs at time 45 million Americans
uninsured
Academic medical centers promoting
luxury primary care clinics and seeking
wealthy overseas patients while cutting
back on services to the un- and underinsured
Concerns About the Agreement
Academic medical centers becoming
increasingly corporatized
 Research exclusivity contracts
Secrecy
gag clauses
skewing of research agenda
Concerns About the Agreement
Patients with developmental
anomalies and cancers caused by
GE’s pollution diagnosed with GE
scanners and treated with GEmanufactured therapeutic devices,
increasing GE’s profit
A macabre twist on
“cradle to grave care”
Solutions
NY-P should cancel agreement
Health care providers and
organizations should condemn this
unholy alliance
Medical and ethical organizations
should develop standards regarding
future agreements
Reference
Donohoe MT. GE – Bringing Bad Things
to Life: Cradle to Grave Health Care and
the Alliance between General Electric
Medical Systems and New YorkPresbyterian Hospital,
Synthesis/Regeneration 2006(Fall);41:313 (abridged version – complete version
available on website)
Contact Information
Public Health and Social Justice
Website
http://www.phsj.org
martindonohoe@phsj.org