GE Ventures

Today, we are excited to announce the nine communities selected to participate in the HealthyCities Leadership Academy. The program is part of GE’s healthymagination commitment and continued efforts to tackle population health challenges by enabling leaders to more effectively develop and implement community health initiatives in their communities.

The year-long program kicks off today with a two-day, in-person workshop at GE’s Global Leadership Institute in Crotonville, New York, and will provide the selected communities with initial funding of $25,000 while offering continued mentorship to help develop and implement community health initiatives that make a lasting impact. At the conclusion of the program in 2017, the most successful communities will compete for additional funding from a total pool of $250,000.

After a thorough evaluation by a panel of experts in the field of health, the nine winning communities selected to participate in the collaborative learning program include:

Atlanta, Georgia – Health Promotion and Prevention of Nutrition-Related Disease Wayfield Foods, the HEALing Community Center and Emory University will work to improve the diets, health and well-being of an Atlanta neighborhood through increased and integrated use of food and health literacy services.  The impact will be achieved by linking community-based healthy food assets, promoting healthy dietary behavior, and changing clinical care models to reinforce healthy behaviors to improve health.

Burlington, Vermont – Substance Abuse Recovery and Employment This proposal focuses on using local business partners to improve the lives and economic well-being of people in recovery, as well as improve economic outcomes for the county. Burlington Labs, a local drug testing company, and the local Chamber of Commerce, will host a series of discussions and planning sessions with human resource staff from across the county, to develop strategies and best practices to employ people who are in recovery.

Camden, New Jersey – Reducing Childhood Obesity In collaboration with Campbell Soup Company, this city will focus on measurably improving the health of young people in the Camden community by sharing best practices and developing a long-term sustainability plan.

Charlotte, North Carolina – Development of Resources on Tobacco, Nutrition and Exercise The Charlotte Chamber’s Healthy Charlotte Council will leverage the exciting successes around programs focused on diabetes and bike lanes to develop, socialize and implement a toolkit for measurement of effective population health programs.  The toolkit will be launched at the Charlotte Chamber Annual Meeting in December of 2016.

Goodyear, Arizona – Land Use Planning The community of Goodyear, Arizona is one of the fastest growing cities in the United States.  In collaboration with John D Kuhn Ventures, Abrazo West Campus, Cancer Treatment Centers of America, Adelante Healthcare and other partners, Goodyear intends to participate in the inception and design phase of the Goodyear Wellness Park.

Hanover, New Hampshire – Innovations in Advance Care Planning for Employers This proposal will focus on building a model to support employers in their ability to assist their employees in making Advance Care Plans (ACP) for themselves and their families and build an overall employer strategy for ACP in non-clinical settings.

Pasadena, Texas – Food Security In collaboration with the Houston Food Bank, Harris County Public Health, Indoor Harvest Corporation, PeopleFund, the Pasadena Health Center (FQHC) and others, this proposal strives to produce and distribute local sources of produce in the north Pasadena community in Harris County.  Additionally, this proposal seeks to increase consumption of these healthy foods by implementing "food prescriptions" to people in need and develop a need-based Food Scholarship Program which will provide free food at a Houston Food Bank partner agency, called a “Scholarship Pantry.”

Miami, Florida – Diabetes Assessment and Treatment In collaboration with West Kendall Baptist Hospital, Healthy West Kendall and LifeWallet, a corporate partner, this proposal aims to enhance the role of the Healthy Hub, a free, one stop screening and referral-to-care kiosk.  The Hub uses the American Health Association’s Life’s Simple 7 assessment to generate a health score using biometric information gathered by a nurse. Currently, many of the Hub visitors are at risk for diabetes and this proposal aims to intervene with those pre-diabetic patients to improve both their clinical and personal health outcomes.

This past April we partnered with startup accelerator, Techstars, in support of their mentorship-driven program, IoT Accelerator, which looks to accelerate startups in New York City that are positioned to transform the future of connected enterprise, smart cities, energy, advanced manufacturing, wearables, automotive, VR, drones, robotics, agriculture and the connected home.

Today, we are excited to announce the 10 winners selected out of a competitive pool of applicants to join the 15-week program based on the potential for success they exhibit in their field. The startups will be paired with a set of phenomenal mentors, inclusive of our own Abhishek Shukla, Deborah Zajac, Hunter Ashmore, Karen Kerr, and Ty Findley, who will offer guidance for scaling and navigating the trials and tribulations associated with running a successful startup.

A huge congratulation to those selected for the opportunity to participate in this amazing program – we’re excited to see what’s in store for the winners, each profiled below!

Drones Dronesmith Twilio’s recent IPO signals that taking out the hassle for developers to build tools is essential. While most drone companies focus on drone operators, Dronesmith focuses on the ease of use for developers. It is the first platform that enables devs to build, ship and run drone applications, parse and analyze data, create custom missions and update paths midflight. Dronesmith allows developers to write code that automatically translates to other platforms and captures info from inflight sensors. Las Vegas-born. Founded 2014.

Healthcare Nanotech Galaxy Medical images make up 90% of data generated by healthcare organizations, which are currently not mined for value. Nanotech Galaxy uses deep learning to analyze these images at scale and provide personalized patient insights to make healthcare organizations proactive instead of reactive. Founded by a vascular surgeon with a PhD in deep learning, Nanotech is an artificial intelligence platform with a goal of saving 1 million lives in the next 10 years. New York-born. Founded 2015.

Construction Urban 3D The construction industry is ripe for innovation. Brazilian-based Urban 3D is enabling the “Internet of Concrete” through a new method of production to fabricate infrastructure and housing. Inspired by her family’s construction business, founder Anielle Guedes spent three years working in Sao Paulo’s favelas to understand housing needs and local infrastructure. Brazilian-born. Founded 2014.

Pillar Technologies Construction sites are often tech lagging environments leading to inefficiencies and a lack of awareness. Pillar’s IoT sensor networks provides insights and prevents disasters by offering predictive analytics for safety concerns like fire outbreak, water damage, and mold growth. Pillar sends real-time alerts to general contractors so that they can manage their site’s integrity. Boston-born. Founded 2015.

Automotive Fueloyal There are 14 million 18-wheelers traveling in North America at any moment. Each year, through fuel theft and fuel card misuse, trucking companies about 83 billion dollars annually. Fueloyal is looking to cut down abuse by 100% with smart fuel caps that provide real-time updates and keep an honest count. Chicago-born. Founded 2014.

TEQ Charging There are currently 15 times as many electric cars on the road as there are charging stations. Without enough sockets, and because drivers need to be present to load up, charging is leading to expensive, frustrating habits. TEQ Charging connects individual power systems to channel energy where it’s needed. Cars stay plugged in throughout the day and drivers use their Android or IoS app to let the system know when they need power. Atlanta-born. Founded 2015.

Advanced Manufacturing Mosaic Manufacturing 3D printing is a messy job. For each additional color or materials, machines have typically required extra nozzles. Mosaic Manufacturing’s Palette cuts, calculates and creates a single feed of PLA delivered through one nozzle. The Palette allows users to feed stainless steel, conductive electric filaments and carbon fiber-infused strands, too. The Palette is a desktop attachment that connects to all standard 3D printers so users can retrofit rather than buy a new printer. Ontario-born. Founded 2014.

Food Service and Logistics Union Crate Union Crate is a predictive solution that digitizes the outdated supply chain infrastructure. Our modular system uses machine learning to securely analyze multiple data points, automate logistics, purchasing and predict usage. We connect corporate buyers, sales teams and inventory operations on one simple interface. Our developer tools also allow users to quickly add automation, security and predictive analytics to their existing supply chain systems. The initial focus is in digitizing the food supply chain to reduce the 140 billion pounds of food wasted  in the USA annually.

Developer Evangelism Xapix.io Xapix makes it easy for enterprise API developers to recombine endpoints, integrate and recombine data and services from multiple providers. As an open platform, Xapix also helps businesses promote and distribute API-based products, especially on mobile devices. Berlin-born. Founded 2015.

Last night, Sue Siegel, CEO, GE Ventures & Healthmagination, spoke at UN Headquarters about GE’s objective to improve the brain health of more than 1 billion people in the next decade.  

Below are her remarks, which set forth GE’s plan to accomplish this ambitious goal.

[Pictured above L to R: Francis Collins, Director of the National Institute of Health (NIH); Torsten Wiesel, President Emeritus of Rockefeller University and Nobel Prize winner; Princess Khaliya Aga Khan, Philanthropist; Sue Siegel, CEO, GE Ventures & Healthmagination]

International Brain Initiative Launch and VIP Dialog: Towards an International Brain Station Monday, September 19, 2016, UN Headquarters

Good evening distinguished dignitaries, honored guests, and colleagues.  My name is Sue Siegel and I’m CEO of GE Ventures and healthymagination.  GE is honored to be included in tonight’s discussion because improving brain health is one of the grand social and scientific challenges of the 21st century.

As profound as we know that challenge to be, GE believes that by working collaboratively with governments, patient advocates, healthcare professionals, universities, philanthropists and social entrepreneurs ... together we can positively impact the brain health of more than 1 billion people in the next decade.

What is being set forth is an audacious goal, but can we settle for anything less? More than 1 out of six in the world’s population today suffers from some form of neurodegenerative disease.  And the changing global demographics will only continue to push those numbers higher.  The urgency is real.  

Consider a couple but dramatic facts:

The amount spent on Alzheimer’s alone – more than $800 billion per year globally -- would make it the 18th largest economy in the world.  So on that basis, Alzheimer’s already qualifies to be a member of the G20.

Traumatic Brain Injury is no less challenging.  More than 30 large clinical trials have failed to identify specific treatments to make a measurable difference for TBI.  Yet we spend more than $76 billion per year in the US treating and caring for those with TBI, and we believe that number is underreported.  

As the world’s leading “digital industrial” company, GE is bringing to bear its digital prowess, its healthcare business and its healthcare technologies, its Global Research Center talents, GE Ventures and healthymagination, which is our programmatic commitment to better health for more people, and our global footprint across 180 countries to this brain effort.  

We are bringing new brain-related products to market with ever-improving imaging technologies to improve brain research, clinical diagnoses and treatment.  We also continue to work on policy issues as they form the scaffolding around which progress in neuroscience will occur.  Just as ELSI provided so much social fabric for the genome project, its “equivalent” is needed for this “brainy” undertaking.  

In 2013, GE launched a global series of thought leadership meetings known as the Brain Trust, designed to bring together some of the world’s foremost experts in neuroscience to help galvanize the community around common themes that could move the field forward.   We are eager to contribute the collection of findings to this international brain effort.   Based on what we learned in those sessions, GE sees at least four policy priorities essential to meeting this challenge:

First, Connectivity — Realizing the promise of big data, data analytics and broad-based data sharing and creating the frameworks for that to happen.  As an example,  GE partnered with the Kavli Foundation, the Allen Institute and others, to develop a pilot known as Neurodata Without Borders, a great example of working collectively towards the imperative of enabling data to be more easily shared and scaled.  

Second, Commonality — Promoting standards, interoperability, data exchanges and common platforms;

Third, Convergence — Integrating multi-disciplinary perspectives to enable problem-oriented, solutions-driven approaches.  This has been done before with the human genome project – there is a proxy, although this challenge is so much more complex.  With the brain, it’s especially important as you need skillsets from the life sciences, the physical sciences and engineering … we need these all engaged.  

And fourth, Collaboration Plus — Investing in innovative research collaborations, next-generation shared infrastructure, new ventures and education. The International Brain Station would be a superb example of Collaboration Plus.

What seems impossible in understanding the brain today promises to be increasingly possible over the next decade. Without proactive, coordinated actions now to address these policy imperatives, the recent promise in research and innovation may be seriously slowed.

Today’s activities reinforce a belief that when global thought leaders embrace a coordinated strategy, one that incorporates proactive approaches grounded in international cooperation, it will serve as a force multiplier in the transformation of brain health.

To close, I’d remind us of the wise and timely admonition from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, which is so relevant to our discussion this evening: “Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.”

In the next 20 years, the world will need to produce 50% more power in order to sustain our increasing energy demands -- easier said than done. While there have been significant advancements in the energy space, carbon emission remains a threat to our environment. For today’s world and future generations, it is critical that we invest in carbon reduction advancements.

As the new kids on the block, we want to increase our investment and involvement in the Boston area, home to our new global headquarters as of last week. After seeing the incredible work being produced in the field of no-carbon energy solutions, we were excited to partner with the  MIT Energy Initiative. Our collaboration with MITEI will fund low carbon research and technology development programs for the energy industry. As a Sustaining Member of MITEI, we will commit a total of $7.5 million over a five-year period ($1.5 million annually) and play an active role in research and project priorities.

This initiative will focus on research programs and projects in four strategic areas, including: solar energy, energy storage, electric power systems, and carbon capture, utilization and storage. MITEI’s mission is to create low and no-carbon solutions that will meet global energy needs while minimizing the harmful impact on the environment - by dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating climate change. With this strategic partnership, we are confident in the success of this mission.

Today’s workplace looks and feels very different than it did just 30 years ago. Office cultures are putting a bigger emphasis on productivity and efficiency, implementing new workplace technologies and management styles. But despite these advancements in office layout and technology, meeting productivity still remains one of the workplace’s biggest challenges. In fact, with over 11 million meetings occurring each day, an estimated $37 billion is lost each year to unproductivity. Implementing efficient meetings is a critical aspect to a fully productive workplace and culture. It is crucial that a system is put into place that can save us time in the workday, and ultimately make for a cost-effective, efficient office. 

Having identified this as a notable issue, we’re excited to announce our investment in a leader in smart office technology, EventBoard. EventBoard uses its cloud-based tools and analytics to help companies reclaim meeting productivity and fuel efficiency. With over 1,700 customers, EventBoard helps by optimizing people, places, and technology in the workplace. With its Insights dashboards, the company displays how employees are engaging in meetings as well as who is attending, for how long, how the space is utilized, technology required, and the impact of meetings that no one attends. Knowing this information helps customers plan for future meetings more accordingly to prevent wasting time and resources. 

At GE Ventures, we’re excited about the future outcome of a truly efficient workday, and EventBoard is taking us one step closer. We’re thrilled to participate in EventBoard’s Series B to support sales and marketing to improve office experience through employee-focused apps and deep data driven insights.

At GE Ventures, we offer more than just capital funding to startups and portfolio companies – we offer GE technology & patents, years of expertise, and business opportunities. It’s part of our DNA.

A defining example of our business is the GE Ventures Licensing team, a group focused on establishing partnerships that put our technology to work and create new prospects for business growth.

The Licensing team, led by GE Licensing President Pat Patnode, is changing industries with its intellectual property (IP) licenses and technology transfers. The team is focused on accelerating innovation and growth for partners by providing access to GE technologies and inventions. Licensing transfers GE-developed technology to our partners to bring ideas to market faster.

These partnerships are making impacts around the world. In Japan, two recent GE Licensing agreements are changing how companies are packaging electronics.

Partners TAIYO YUDEN and SHINKO ELECTRONICS will use GE-developed technology to create the next generation of electronic packaging solutions. Announced today, GE Ventures has licensed TAIYO YUDEN to fabricate substrates embedded with electronic circuits. With this technology transfer, TAIYO YUDEN and GE will construct a joint development framework toward the commercialization of next-generation wirebondless, embedded electronics circuits. These embedded electronic packaging technologies provide significantly improved electrical performance (for example, reduced parasitics), and can increase functional density of the electronics circuits by more than a third.

Earlier this year, GE Ventures announced an IP license with SHINKO ELECTRONICS for an advanced embedded packaging solution for power electronics called Power Overlay (POL). Developed by GE Global Research as part of a major GE focus in power electronics research over the last decade, POL has been licensed to SHINKO to industrialize the packaging platform and transition POL to manufacturing for GE and others. The platform enables higher efficiency and power density with reduced parasitics, and greatly impacts the power, telecommunications and consumer electronics industries. Power modules designed with POL have proven to have power densities up to 50% higher and efficiency improved up to 10%.

The Industrial Internet is taking the world by storm. From healthcare to government to education, every industry is looking to deploy internet-connected devices within their organizations. However, as companies take their complex devices online, they’re faced with a problem: “How can I safely and securely maintain remote devices while also delivering new software features and functionality to my customers?”

That’s where resin.io comes in. Resin.io was founded in 2013 with a mission to simplify the way developers build, deploy, and manage software for Industrial Internet devices. Since then, businesses across a range of vertical industries have adopted the resin.io platform to safely deliver software for security patches, new feature deployments and device changes.

With resin.io, device fleet owners can have all of their connected devices in one unified console, enabling developers to iterate faster, securely push updates to hundreds or thousands of devices at once, and gain ongoing visibility into how their devices are performing overall.

At GE Ventures, we’re excited about the limitless opportunities that Industrial Internet devices bring the industries GE operates in, and the strategic advantage that resin.io brings to those industries. We’re thrilled to participate in resin.io’s latest $9 million funding round to help expand the company’s product footprint, grow its open source community and broaden its global reach.

In April we partnered with Techstars, along with PwC, Bosch and Verizon, on its new IoT Accelerator in New York City, which will bring additional focus to the Industrial Internet and connecting the infrastructure of business and industry.

The program looks to accelerate startups positioned to transform the future of connected enterprise, smart cities, energy, advanced manufacturing, wearables, automotive, VR, drones, robotics, agriculture and the connected home.

The Techstars IoT Accelerator will welcome 10 innovative startups for a 15-week, mentorship driven program in New York in 2016.

The good news? There are still spots available! Apply here through July 10, 2016.

Africa has the highest rate of child mortality in the world with 5.9 million children passing away under the age of 5 in 2015, and over half were due to preventable conditions or conditions that can be treated with access to simple, affordable interventions. Additionally, in the United States, two women die each day due to childbirth complication; in Africa, it is estimated that over 450 women die each day due to these complications. Currently, this is one of sub-Saharan Africa’s largest problems that must be addressed for the future success of the region. There are different ways for the rest of the world to address this problem and offer a helping hand.

Last week, healthymagination joined the Organisation of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA) and Santa Clara University Miller Center at our First Ladies of Africa Event to discuss possible solutions and ultimately advance social entrepreneurship to improve maternal in the region. Social entrepreneurship is considered a crucial catalytic factor when alleviating social and environmental faults because it provides local solutions, is sustainable, invests in human capital, and develops models that organizations can scale.

GE and Santa Clara University’s Miller Center developed a partnership in March to accelerate the growth of social enterprises working to improve access, affordability and quality of maternal and child health in sub-Saharan Africa. The program includes training and mentoring 15-20 participants during a three-day, in-person workshop in Nairobi, Kenya, followed by a six-month online program accompanied by weekly mentoring from Silicon Valley-based executives.

Last week’s meeting with OAFLA demonstrates progress and momentum with the initiative and we’re excited to see the results of this collaboration. Together, our goal is to improve global health outcomes, foster the region’s economic development, and develop the local human capital. Improving the maternal and child health in sub-Saharan Africa is a critical global health priority that we are committed to resolve.

To learn more about last week’s discussion and meeting, visit: http://invent.ge/1WLu29W 

The combustion of fossil fuels to generate electricity to power homes, businesses and industry,  is the largest single source of CO2 emissions in the nation, accounting for about 37% of total U.S. CO2 emissions and 30% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2014. The necessity to develop clean and affordable energy is one of the biggest challenges currently facing society as the environmental impact from our carbon-based emissions is catastrophic for not only our generation, but those to follow. It is essential that we begin to explore alternative avenues for the production and storage of clean energy, and one of those avenues is the creation of a global decentralized energy community.  What that means is that the energy is produced and stored close to where it will be consumed, rather than at a large plant elsewhere and sent through the national grid. This ultimately reduces transmission losses and carbon emissions.

Having identified this as a significant issue, we’re very excited to announce our investment into Europe's biggest manufacturer of lithium-battery systems for solar energy, sonnen. This amazing company is creating that idealistic global decentralized energy community with their system that gives users independence from the electrical grid by developing and producing a residential and commercial smart storage system, "sonnenBatterie". With this, they’ve enabled more than 10,000 households worldwide, to meet their energy needs with self-produced renewable energy. Due to the fact that these establishments are now producing their own energy, the “sonnenBatterie" can provide a return on investment in as little as 6.5 years. In the "sonnenCommunity" households can share their self-produced energy with other people and can become completely independent of conventional suppliers.

The way sonnen’s system works is quite simple, it harnesses and stores energy from the sun, and powers your home with that energy. If more solar energy is produced than your home requires, the excess energy is stored and even fed back into the public power grid. With this, they’re giving their users energy independence and creating a world running off of clean energy.

Imagine this scenario: you're laying in a hospital bed after a procedure that has left you looking for post-acute care (PAC). A case manager walks in, gives you a list of PAC providers and tells you to pick one. Legally, case managers not allowed to give recommendations, but you don’t know anything about the quality of care these providers will provide. You’re faced with a blind decision concerning your health and there's seemingly nothing you can do about it.

Enter SilverVue: a provider of patient transitional care technologies, and our newest portfolio company.

To address PAC challenges, SilverVue has built its SilverSearch platform – a digital directory that organizes healthcare provider options by CMS ratings, zip codes and insurance plans. Patients can now easily select service providers based on the specialized care they need as they leave the hospital, such as long-term acute care, inpatient rehabilitation, skilled nursing or home health services. The platform is simple for both patients and case managers to use, and the result is a more streamlined process, reduced costs and improved patient outcomes and satisfaction.

SilverVue aims to instill confidence and peace of mind for patients seeking transitional care.  We’re quite excited to co-lead SilverVue’s latest funding round, helping to alleviate the pain points currently plaguing the PAC industry.

With this funding SilverVue will grow its sales and account management teams in order to scale its service offerings and expand its customer base.

The following is an original article by Ruchita Sinha, Director of Healthcare Ventures at GE Ventures.

Eight months ago when we were selecting themes for the new class of participants in the StartUp Health and GE Ventures program, we wanted to go big. We wanted to attract entrepreneurs with those moonshot ideas that could really transform healthcare. And there is no bigger transformation currently happening in the healthcare industry than the transition to value-based care – a fundamental financial, philosophical, and cultural change where care is paid for based on outcomes instead of the number of visits, tests, or procedures. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (also known as ACA) laid out specific reimbursement and care delivery reforms that incentivizes delivery of better patient outcomes while reducing costs.

For the skeptics, let’s take a quick look at some statistics: • The number of American lives in some form of value-based payments was 80M in 2014 and expected to be 150M by 2019. • CMS hopes to link 50% of all Medicare payments to value based by 2018 (as compared to 0% in 2011)

Our perspective is that this transformation is coming fast and furious and it opens up vast opportunities for entrepreneurs. Technologies and business models that enable health systems, plans, employers, and consumers to adapt to this transformation will prove to be winners. As we think about how the shift to value based care will impact current stakeholders in the industry, there are 3 key areas where new technologies and business models can make a big difference:

i. Financial and Operational Workflow: With the change in reimbursement models, health systems have to start thinking and operating more like businesses, which will involve streamlining operations and eliminating back-office inefficiencies in claims processing, risk coding, billing, and payments. This will enable them to grow revenues while managing costs. Some of the main hurdles in doing so are systems that do not work together, processes that largely manual, payments systems that are unnecessarily complex, and an evolving set of billing codes (ICD-10).

These set of challenges get us excited about a company like Biome Analytics that is addressing some of these challenges for cardiovascular teams in health systems. Biome builds the applications, organizes the data, and provides the insight cardiovascular care teams need to continuously achieve the best possible clinical outcomes at the lowest cost. Biome Analytics’ transformational goal is to help hospitals deliver the best possible cardiovascular care at the lowest cost.

ii. Clinical Workflow: In addition to driving down costs, providers and health plans have to think seriously about improving quality of care and patient outcomes. The ultimate goal is to be able to deliver the right care to the right patient at the right time while avoiding unnecessary duplication of services, and avoiding medical errors. A key part of this is to be able to manage a patient through the care continuum rather than for specific episodes. For this, it is not only important to be able to better coordinate information across different sites and IT systems, but also enable practitioners to communicate and collaborate on key treatment decisions.

WinguMD is a company that is looking to address this gap by creating a new standard in mobile medical photography. Their solution is a one-step medical documentation app designed for all providers, from small clinics to large hospitals. It offers body location & tagging tools for physicians to take mobile images as well as,  integration to EHR, Dicomm, PACS for documentation, and to tools like Doximity and TigerText for collaboration

iii. Chronic care management: 86% of healthcare expenditure in the US is driven by chronic diseases. And data from the US Department of Health and Human Services shows that the top 5% of the population spends around half of nation’s total healthcare expenditure. As healthcare costs continue to rise, health systems, plans, and employers are looking for ways to identify these high-risk patients and help them better manage their chronic conditions. A large majority of this chronic disease management will need to happen outside the four walls of the hospital and in the patient’s home, and this is where digital technologies will prove to be a game changer. However, in order to be successful, these technologies will need to find a valid pain point and demonstrate the ability to engage patients.

One of the new additions to the GE-StartUp Health portfolio, Jiseki Health, has shown both of these to be true. Jiseki Health’s mission is to bridge the gap between hospital provided care and community resources by providing a platform to connect patients to health support services in the patient’s community, and allows community health care coordinators to manage patient care outside of the hospital setting. This enables patients to better adhere to their care plans thus reducing emergency room visits and hospital admissions.

It is important to note that better use of data and analytics to provide insights and inform decisions will play a key role in all three of these categories. As part of own unique collaborative program to help build innovative digital health companies, StartUp Health and GE Ventures remain interested in partnering with companies that share our vision of making a big change in this industry.

Better health is not only central to happiness and life expectancy; it is imperative for the vibrancy of communities, and the success of businesses in that community. Healthy populations live longer, are more productive, and are more efficient. Better health has broader socioeconomic impacts for generations to come.  

Healthymagination is GE’s commitment to better health for more people. We continuously develop and invest in innovation to improve the lives of people around the world – and this time we are investing in you.

We invite you to apply to the Healthy Cities Leadership Academy, a program that encourages U.S. communities to work together to develop population health improvements by partnering with public and private entities.

The Healthy Cities Leadership Academy is an open innovation challenge focused on recruiting up to 10 communities to compete for matching grants of $25,000 and a chance to secure additional funding during a year-long learning collaborative.

The goal of the program is to train community and business leaders to work together to develop and support new models for approaching population health challenges and ultimately improving the health of working families living in their cities, towns and communities.

Our 2nd Annual CEO Summit took place last week in San Diego at the Hotel Del Coronado. The event brought together partners, CEOs, thought leaders and even celebrities to discuss the hot topics currently facing the industries we touch. It wasn’t all work though; we surfed, sailed and golfed, all in the name of networking. It was an unforgettable event and in case you couldn’t make it to San Diego, below are some highlights.

While we heard speakers and panelists from a multitude of backgrounds and experiences, time and again we came back to the same question: what does it take to be a leader and run a successful business? It turns out it’s not your IQ, your ability to avoid failure or even the product or solution you’ve built. According to Sally Hogshead, New York Times best-selling author, “You are the ultimate technology,” and to differentiate, you need to become more of who you are. Barbara Corcoran, American businesswoman and television personality from the hit show Shark Tank, also emphasized how trusting her intuition helped her build her team and business. When it comes to differentiation Barbara’s approach is simple: “I intentionally try to be more myself.” Entrepreneurs spend so much time analyzing the market, their business and product, but as leaders it’s also important to look in the mirror and get to know yourself.

CEO and Chairman of GE, Jeff Immelt, took the stage on the first day and provided incredible insight and inspiration. He touched on leadership, the current state of the market, how GE has been able to sustain success, as well as a few personal matters. (Fun fact, Jeff is a big Katy Perry fan!) His leadership philosophy was summed up best when he said, “leadership is this incredible journey into yourself from a stance of being self reflective - how much you’re willing to change, how much you’re willing to learn, how much you’re willing to sacrifice.”

Another fact about Jeff: he doesn’t like business books. They have no shelf life and by the time they’re published they’ve become obsolete. This is indicative of how quickly the world moves and if you’re not thinking a few steps ahead, you’re destined to be left behind. Positioning oneself for the inevitable pivot is imperative.

Diversity was a recurring theme throughout the event. The importance of diversity is an evolution that must be embraced in order to sustain success. At GE, we’re seeing stereotypes are being broken and the outcomes are overwhelmingly positive. To conclude his presentation, Jeff told the crowd, "Demand that people unlearn things and always have the desire to be the most competitive company in the world."

Leslie Miley, Director of Engineering at Slack, shared, “Being inclusive means actually knowing about the people you’re working with, and knowing at least something about how they got to where they are.” Fostering a diverse and inclusive environment is a learned skill. Sometimes it’s uncomfortable, but one way Deb Elam, GE Chief Diversity Officer, achieves it is simple: “Not shutting [people] down but giving them the grace to have the conversations so they grow... because when the next thing comes up, then you have real trust, then you have a real relationship, then you can have a real team that works together.”

GE Chief Economist, Marco Annunziata also graced the stage. While Marco acknowledged that there are some things profoundly wrong in today’s market, he is also optimistic. “We underestimate technology at our peril. We will find a way around it. We will innovate our way right through.” He also gave maybe the best advice of the weekend: get a dog.

Going public is a huge milestone, but what comes after the IPO is what really counts. While some post-IPO companies are popping the champagne to celebrate, the smart ones know the work has just begun. That was the case for Veracyte CEO, Bonnie Anderson, who advised “what you should really be planning for is the post-IPO, not the event itself.” Regardless of today’s market (ahem, Marco), going public is not for every company and brings its own set of hurdles. It’s essential to start planning before the window is even open, because you can’t time an IPO. Execute, stay focused on the business and the timing will become obvious.

Best-selling Author and Digital Marketing Expert, Mitch Joel told the audience the story of The Three Little Pigs of Business: transform, innovate, and transact. He explained this metaphor with the example of Blockbuster’s downfall leading to the rise of Netflix. Throughout the Summit we were reminded to not only be open to change, but to embrace and facilitate it. GE has set the example with our ability to pivot and transform, especially as we embark upon the digital industrial age. As difficult as change may be, it is equally as exciting. Beth Comstock, Vice Chair of GE, said it best with, "I don't like the now, I like what's next," which is a philosophy we can all learn from.

The EDGE program was also a topic of conversation as various portfolio companies explained their experiences with the program and what it’s meant for their success. Doug Foster, CEO of DigiSight Technologies, stated that a key role a VC can play is helping a company achieve its critical path milestones in the most efficient way possible. This is where GE Ventures’ EDGE really shines, leveraging the global scale, expertise and resources of GE to provide our partners with programs, tools, information and education to help you build, grow and scale. You can learn more about EDGE here.  

Another offering unique to GE is the GE Store, which facilitates idea sharing, and collaboration across businesses and industries. Sue Siegel, GE Ventures CEO, proclaimed that it is about de-layering, while bringing speed and power to outcomes in order to deliver solutions to customers faster. It’s a place to aggregate technology, knowledge and tools across the GE Businesses and portfolio companies. When you think about the various industries in the portfolio, there are different things happening at any one time that can inform other industries. The learning that comes out of that is powerful and easily accessible through the GE Store.

Last but certainly not least, Bill Ruh, Chief Digital Officer at GE, and Jamie Miller, President and CEO of GE Transportation, took center stage to discuss GE’s digital evolution and the benefits of Predix, a platform that enables industrial-scale analytics for asset performance management and operations optimization. Bill stated that its genesis was because “We felt there really wasn’t a platform that existed in the industrial space, so in the end we decided to go all in.” Efficiency is key in the digital world and Predix aims to enhance that element; as Bill said “Whoever can learn how to make an asset more efficient and more productive, is going to win.” Jamie chimed in with a tangible example from the perspective of GE Transportation, as she pointed out that derailments are a big issue and in order to combat that, GE works with rail customers to figure out how to predict and prevent such incidents.

Thank you to everyone who attended this year’s CEO Summit. We cannot wait for next year!

According to the CDC, cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States, with one of every four deaths occurring due to cancer.

Launched Monday, Vitruvian Networks is committed to providing more effective and safer treatment for cancer patients that will get to market faster. As an innovator in advancing oncology treatment options for patients, Vitruvian Networks is proud to be part of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.

Formally launched today, the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy is a consortium of leading companies, nonprofits and cancer centers, all coming together to maximize immunotherapy’s potential to transform all cancers into manageable diseases, ultimately saving millions of lives.

This is a unique collaboration bringing together the best scientists, clinicians and industry partners to build smarter and more coordinated cancer immunotherapy research. Vitruvian Networks shares a vision with the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy to find breakthroughs to outsmart cancer.

As part of the Parker Institute, Vitruvian Networks will work to enhance access to cutting edge tools and technology, providing resources to help speed the discovery and development of treatment options.

By 2020, 50 billion machines are expected to come online and GE is leading this next generation of industrial progress.

However, we know we can’t power the Industrial Internet ourselves.

We’re always looking for startups and partners to help us move the digital industrial era forward, and we’re excited to announce our latest step in the right direction.

This week, Techstars has opened applications for its new IoT Accelerator in New York City, which will bring additional focus to the Industrial Internet and connecting the infrastructure of business and industry. The accelerator will welcome 10 of the most innovative startups for a 15-week, mentorship driven program.

Along with PwC, Bosch and Verizon, we’re partnering with Techstars to accelerate startups that are positioned to rewire the infrastructure of the future with specific emphasis on connected enterprise, smart cities and energy, advanced manufacturing, health and wearables, logistics and automotive, VR, drones and robotics, agriculture and the connected home. Techstars is one of the leading investors in the Industrial Internet and with its proven success of prior accelerators we look forward to working together to source, select and mentor the companies, offering GE’s unique domain expertise and resources.

Applications are now open here, and will remain open until July 10, 2016.