Bangalore: Launching a new business model for managed services, GE Healthcare on Monday said it is getting into the services sector with its Web-based teleradiology solutions which will expand its $1.5 billion (around Rs6,975 crore) global healthcare information technology (IT) business.

GE has tied up with New Delhi-based radiology group Diwan Chand Medical Services (P) Ltd after running a six-month pilot of its teleradiology tool PACS-IW. “This is the primary business model which we have not tested in any other market,” said Vishal Wanchoo, president and chief executive of GE Healthcare IT.

Once the deployment reaches maturity, the model can be taken to emerging markets such as Brazil, China and Russia, he said. GE will host the data centres as well as provide software.

With less than 2% penetration of IT in healthcare, GE expects its picture archival and communication system, its hospital information system and other services-oriented solutions will have wide business opportunities. Even though smaller organizations have been active in healthcare IT, teleradiology in particular, Wanchoo believes a large and established company such as GE has an advantage. “With smaller companies, you don’t know if they will exist after two-three years or not.”

Continuing its strategy to hammer down the prices of cardiology equipment, the firm said the next model of its portable electrocardiography (ECG) machine—MAC-i—will cost half the price of the older machine, bringing down the cost per ECG measurement to just Rs9. It also has a financing provision through a State Bank of India alliance.

V. Raja, president and chief executive GE Healthcare South Asia, said after GE’s launch of the “healthy imagination” programme in May, 17 innovative products have been launched, of which four have been from India.

feedback@livemint.com