1. Bringing Bad Things to Life
The alliance between GE Medical Systems and NY-Presbyterian Hospital
Martin Donohoe

2. 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

3. 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

4. General Electric
Ranked by Forbes as world’s largest company (based on equal weighting of sales, profits, assets, and market value)
2015 revenues of $117 billion
Close to the GDP of more than 2/3 of U.N. member states
2015 net after-tax profits of $15.9 billion
Majority from overseas operations

5. 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

6. GE’s History
Charles Wilson (CEO of GE pre- and post-WW 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.”

7. 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

8. General Electric Operates coal-burning power plants
Major releasers of toxic mercury
Number 2 corporation in oil-field services industry after joining forces with Baker Hughes (2016)
Produces nearly 40 technologies used in fracking
Increasing investments in fracking

9. 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

10. General Electric
Until recently, owned 49% of a multi-billion dollar media empire
Including NBC, Telemundo, and Universal Studios
Comcast owned 51%; bought out GE in 2013

11. 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”

12. 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, probably not Parkinson’s Disease
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

13. GE’s Record
2013: Recalls multiple nuclear medicine imaging systems due to mechanical problem that could cause serious injury or death
2015: Pays $2.25 million civil penalty for potentially releasing unsafe levels of air pollution (including carcinogens) from hazardous waste incinerator in Waterford, CT (falsified pollution control records)

14. GE’s Record America’s largest corporate polluter
116 Superfund sites nationwide
Approximately 13 in NY

15. 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) – cleanup still ongoing

16. GE’s Record
Spent millions to avoid Hudson cleanup and to weaken or eliminate Superfund Law
2010: Cleanup begins
2016: Cleanup completed (cost $1.6 billion to remove 310,000 lbs PCBs/2.5 million cubic yards of material)
2016: NY State Environmental Commissioner calls cleanup inadequate
2017: EPA to complete review

17. GE’s Record Contributes to corporate front groups
Promulgate an anti-scientific and pseudo-scientific agenda
Conduct media disinformation campaigns in an attempt to weaken health and environmental regulations

18. GE’s Record
Tremendous influence of environmental, energy, and health policy
Spent $22 million on lobbying in 2015
More than $200 million over last decade
Many members of board of directors have government ties; others have insurance and pharmaceutical industry ties

19. 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
Percentage of total employees in U.S.
1995 – 68%
2005 – 51%
2015 – 38%

20. GE’s Record One of nation’s top outsourcers of jobs
1/5 of U.S. workforce eliminated since 2002 (while overseas workforce increased)
Eliminated 34,000 US jobs between 2000 and 2010
Added 25,000 overseas jobs over same period

21. GE’s Record
Executive pension plan far more generous than for other employees
Continues to shift health care costs onto workers, despite growing profits

22. GE’s Record
Cited by Human Rights Watch for “systematic workers’ rights violations” in the U.S. and abroad
858 OSHA workplace citations from
Investments include for-profit prison enterprises

23. GE’s Record
GE has sponsored PGA Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club
Club excludes women
CEO Immelt a member

24. 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

25. GE and Corporate Taxes
GE topped the list of corporate tax break recipients from :
$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”)

26. 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

27. GE’s Record The Patient Channel
Shown in hospital rooms throughout country
Advertising vehicle for drug companies
Criticized by JCAHO for manipulative marketing practices

28. 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.

29. GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt 2015 total compensation = $33 million
Named “World’s Best CEO” in 3 separate Barron’s polls
On Board of NY Federal Reserve Bank

30. GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt
2008 – Named one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World” by TIME Magazine
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)

31. GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt
Appointed by Obama as Chair of his outside panel of Economic Advisors and of his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness

32. GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt
Charitable works include membership on the board of directors of “The Robin Hood Foundation”!

33. 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

34. Concerns About the Agreement
Provides GE with financial incentives to promote high technology purchases
Hospital prohibited from purchasing more effective equipment from other companies

35. 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

36. 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 under-insured

37. Concerns About the Agreement
Academic medical centers becoming increasingly corporatized
Research exclusivity contracts
Secrecy
gag clauses
Skewing of research agenda

38. 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

39. 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

40. 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

41. 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

42. Concerns About the Agreement
Patients with developmental anomalies and cancers caused by GE’s pollution diagnosed with GE scanners and treated with GE-manufactured therapeutic devices, increasing GE’s profit

43. A macabre twist on “cradle to grave care”

44. 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): Available at

45. Public Health and Social Justice Website
Contact Information
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