Vishal Wanchoo, president and CEO of GE Healthcare’s Integrated IT Solutions business, sat down with Health Imaging & IT to discuss the recent acquisition of IDX. He forecasts the combined entity will reach sales of $1.9 billion in 2006.

Can you detail GE’s new product portfolio, and which crossover products between GE and IDX will remain?

All products will be under the Centricity umbrella, and we’re bringing together complementary products from both companies. GE Centricity Enterprise comprises the former IDX Carecast product and is a fully integrated clinical, financial and administrative system. It combines core clinical processes for orders, results, pharmacy and clinical documentation with administrative and financial processes for scheduling, registration, admitting, charging and billing.

What will be the software platform going forward for Centricity/IDX products?

In the short-term, our goal is to address some immediate priorities for interoperability between systems through a web-based user interface, which manages patient context across systems and supports single sign on. We’ll also pursue opportunities for direct data exchange between systems, including ensuring that images are easily accessible from within our electronic medical records.

What is the impact on customers resulting from the joining of the two product lines?

Honoring commitments made to existing customers is very important to us.  In the event that a customer has purchased an application that is not part of our go-forward strategy, we’ll continue to provide technical support for that application.