The GE Health Cloud was unveiled at the 101st annual Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) meeting in Chicago. Designed exclusively for the healthcare industry, the new cloud ecosystem and its applications will connect radiologists and clinicians to speed, efficiency and collaboration across care pathways and multidisciplinary teams – both inside and outside the hospital setting.

GE said the new cloud will connect to more than 500,000 GE imaging machines, shifting image post-processing from on-site machines to the cloud. From the cloud, 3-D images can then be viewed on multiple devices – inside and outside the hospital setting. The GE Health Cloud and apps will give clinicians on-demand, flexible computing power that can scale up or down.

By opening its cloud for third party app development, GE said it intends to attract independent software vendors (ISVs) to develop their apps in the new cloud ecosystem.

“Our ultimate goal is to help improve patient care and drive superior clinical, financial and operational outcomes alongside healthcare providers,” said Jeff Immelt, chairman and CEO of GE. “As the digital industrial leader, we are betting big on the GE Health Cloud. By connecting clinicians with the insights needed, when and where they need them, clinicians can take action to improve healthcare outcomes and delivery around the globe.”

The new health cloud follows GE’s September Minds + Machines announcement of the company’s transformation to becoming the world’s leading digital industrial company. There, Immelt pointed to new data that revealed a potential 20 percent increase in performance through new software and products powered by PredixTM, GE’s cloud platform. The GE Health Cloud is the first industry-specific cloud to be built on the Predix platform.