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 (2003)
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
Ranked by Forbes as world’s largest
company (based on equal weighting of
sales, profits, assets, and market value)
2014 revenues of $149 billion
 Close to the GDP of more than 2/3 of
U.N. member states
2014 net after-tax profits of $15.2 billion
Majority from overseas operations
General Electric
Makes household appliances, lighting, and
medical equipment
 Plastics division, which produced
bisphenol A, spun off in 2008
Produces jet engines and military
hardware
Manufactures advance surveillance
technologies
GE’s History
Charles Wilson (CEO of GE pre- and postWW II; helped oversee U.S. military
production during WW II):

“The revulsion against war…will be an almost
insuperable obstacle for us to overcome. For
that reason, I am convinced that we must
begin now to set the machinery in motion for a
permanent wartime economy.”
General Electric
Has built 91 nuclear power plants in 11
countries (including the troubled
Fukushima Daishi plants in Japan)
 Including 23 plants at 11 sites in U.S.
e.g., Hanford
 ¼ of GE’s US reactors found to be
defective
General Electric
Operates coal-burning power plants
 Major releasers of toxic mercury
Produces nearly 40 technologies used in
fracking

Increasing investments in fracking
General Electric
Operates a large financial services group
 Responsible for over 50% of company’s
profits in recent years
 2015: company plans to sell off majority of GE
Capital (now Syncrhony Financial) over next 2
years
 Under investigation by the Justice Department
for over potential bankruptcy violations
General Electric
Until recently, owned 49% of a multibillion dollar media empire
 Including NBC, Telemundo, and
Universal Studios
 Comcast owned 51%; bought out
GE in 2013
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
cancers, hypothyroidism, and spontaneous
abortions in “Downwinders”
GE’s Record
Sued radiologist who brought to light dangers of
GE’s contrast agent, Omniscan
 Causes nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (FDA
black box warning)
 Gadolinium (heavy metal) may cause brain
damage
Ordered to pay $11.4 million to Bracco
Diagnositcs for falsely/misleadingly claiming that
its x-ray contrast agent Visipaque was superior
to BD’s Isovue
GE’s Record
2013: Recalls multiple nuclear medicine
imaging systems due to mechanical
problem that could cause serious injury or
death
GE’s Record
America’s largest corporate polluter
116 Superfund sites nationwide
Approximately 13 in NY
GE’s Record
Between 1947 and 1977, two of its capacitor
manufacturing plants dumped at least 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
 Similar to GE’s contamination of Housatonic
River (Pittsfield, MA)
GE’s Record
Has spent millions to avoid Hudson cleanup and
to weaken or eliminate Superfund Law
 Cleanup going slowly
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
Tremendous influence of environmental,
energy, and health policy
Spent over $16 million on federal
government lobbying in 2014

More than $200 million over last decade
Many members of board of directors have
government ties; others have insurance
and pharmaceutical industry ties
GE’s Record
Has eliminated 150,000 jobs in the U.S. in
the last 15 years

While receiving billions in federal contracts
and millions in state and local subsidies
One of nation’s top outsourcers of jobs

1/5 of U.S. workforce eliminated since 2002
(while overseas workforce increased)
GE’s Record
Eliminated 34,000 US jobs between
2000 and 2010
Added 25,000 overseas jobs over
same period
GE’s Record
Executive pension plan far more
generous than for other employees
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
GE has sponsored PGA Masters
Tournament at Augusta National Golf
Club
 Club excludes women
 CEO Immelt a member
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 2001-2003:
 $9.5 billion in tax breaks
Between 2001 and 2010, paid only 2.3% of its
$81 billion profits in federal taxes
Claimed tax benefits of $3.5 billion in 2010
Under investigation for tax evasion in Brazil
Tax department has almost 1,000 employees
(known as the “world’s best tax law firm”)
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.
GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt
2014 total compensation = $37.2 million
(up from $25.8 million in 2013)
Named “World’s Best CEO” in 3 separate
Barron’s polls
2006 - 2011 - On Board of NY Federal
Reserve Bank
GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt
2008 – Named one of the “100 Most Influential
People in the World” by TIME Magazine
2009 - Appointed by President Obama to his
Economic Recovery Board
 GE then became eligible, via a loophole, for ¼
of the $340 billion Temporary Liquidity
Guarantee Program (debt support)
GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt
2011 - Appointed by Obama as Chair of
his outside panel of Economic Advisors
and of his Council on Jobs and
Competitiveness
GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt
Charitable works include membership on
the board of directors of “The Robin Hood
Foundation”!
GE’s Record
Named “America’s Most Admired
Company” by Forbes
Named one of the “World’s Most
Respected Companies” in polls conducted
by Barron’s and The Financial Times
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 41 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
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 College
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
Concerns About the Agreement
I contacted the CEO of New York
Presbyterian Hospital, the Dean, and the
head of the Ethics Department to obtain
more information re the agreement and
the nature of the discussion preceding the
agreement

No Response
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”
Reference
Donohoe MT, Robinson C. Corporations
and Public Health: Overview and Case
Study of GE Healthcare - "Most Admired
Company" or Foe of Public Health. Social
Medicine 2010;5(4):237-244. Available at
http://www.socialmedicine.info/index.php/s
ocialmedicine/article/view/482/1035.
Contact Information
Public Health and Social Justice
Website
http://www.phsj.org
martindonohoe@phsj.org