The "healthymagination" Initiative

 GE and leading healthcare and financial partners launched a new healthymagination initiative aimed at accelerating cancer innovation and improving care for 10 million cancer patients around the world by 2020. The campaign is founded on GE's integrated portfolio, which is uniquely positioned to drive game-changing impact in oncology and a leap forward for individualized cancer care.
GE CEO and Chairman Jeff Immelt and several venture capital partners announced a healthymagination open innovation Challenge to fund promising ideas to improve breast cancer diagnostics. Immelt also said that GE would invest USD 1 billion over the next 5 years on R&D programs to expand its suite of advanced technologies and solutions for cancer detection and treatment, beginning with breast cancer.
"We envision a day when cancer is no longer a deadly disease. When you add our cutting-edge cancer detection technologies to the innovative ideas of our new partners, it's a powerful formula for tackling cancer and helping doctors and researchers improve care," said Immelt.
Nancy Brinker, Founder and CEO, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, said, "Extraordinary things can happen when you apply imagination to solve big problems. This initiative brings new innovation, commitment, and significant resources to the table, and we're very excited about its potential to help us end suffering and death, on a global scale, from the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women."

Open Innovation to Save Lives
GE's USD 100 million global open innovation challenge seeks to identify and bring to market ideas that advance breast cancer diagnostics. The goal is to help healthcare professionals better understand tumors associated with triple-negative cancer, a type of cancer that is less responsive to standard treatments and is typically more aggressive, as well as the molecular similarities between breast cancer and other solid tumors, improving early detection, allowing for more accurate diagnoses, and ultimately helping doctors make the best possible treatment decisions based on each patient's unique cancer.
The Challenge, open immediately for entries (www.healthymagination.com/challenge), was launched in collaboration with leading venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Venrock, Mohr Davidow, and MPM Capital. The effort will also feature a special focus on data, in partnership with O'Reilly Media, whose CEO and Founder Tim O'Reilly is a preeminent advocate for using data science to spur innovation.
Risa Stack, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and GE healthymagination Challenge judge, said, "Based on our work in healthcare, we think that there is great opportunity to impact cancer care with new technology in the next 10 years. As we saw through the success of the "ecomagination" Challenge, innovation can be transformational and good ideas that drive change can come from anywhere. We look forward to once again partnering with GE on the healthymagination Challenge to help shape a new age in patient care."
Challenge entrants will be evaluated by a committee of representatives from GE and venture capital partner firms. A separate, independent judging panel that includes GE executives, venture capital partners, and several leading healthcare luminaries—such as former U.S. FDA Commissioner and National Cancer Institute Director, Dr. Andrew Von Eschenbach; Professor of Surgery and Director of the University of Michigan Breast Care Center, Dr. Lisa Newman; and cancer medicine specialist and Imperial College's professor of cancer medicine, Dr. Justin Stebbing—will select the recipients of the USD 100,000 innovation seed grants. Winners will be announced in the first quarter of 2012.
Andrew von Eschenbach, GE healthymagination Challenge judge and healthymagination advisory board member, said, "Scientific discovery and advances in teFootwear