BARRINGTON, Ill., — GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), announced the completion of the company’s acquisition of IDX Systems Corporation (NASDAQ: IDXC), a leading healthcare information technology (IT) provider. GE expects the acquisition to accelerate efforts to seamlessly connect clinicians from physicians’ offices to hospitals with comprehensive, enterprise-wide electronic health record (EHR) solutions, creating a digital community that supports safe, efficient and cost-effective patient care. In 2005, the RAND Corporation, a non-profit research organization, released information indicating that America’s healthcare system could save more than $81 billion annually and improve the quality of care if it were to broadly adopt computerized medical records. “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 improve the quality of patient care,” said Joe Hogan, president and CEO of GE Healthcare. “In addition, our newly expanded IT product line will provide healthcare practitioners with powerful new capabilities and tools, like comprehensive EHRs, to help physicians diagnose and treat disease earlier than ever before.” With the completion of the transaction, Vishal Wanchoo, president and CEO of GE Healthcare Information Technologies, will continue to lead GE’s IT business. GE’s IT business will have its global headquarters in Barrington, Illinois, with major offices in Burlington, Vermont; Boston; Seattle; and London, along with satellite offices both within and outside the United States. According to Wanchoo, the acquisition also enables GE to offer a comprehensive suite of financial and business management solutions for group practices, hospitals and integrated delivery networks (IDNs), as well as a combined industry-leading radiology information system (RIS) and picture archiving communications system (PACS) solution. GE’s complete product portfolio will help healthcare providers deliver the best quality of care while optimizing business performance.