GE said today it will invest $3 billion in research and development to launch at least 100 technology innovations that lower healthcare cost, increase healthcare access and improve quality by 15 percent by 2015.

GE released this information today in its second annual global report for healthymagination, the company’s business strategy to reform healthcare by focusing on high costs, disparate quality and inadequate access. GE said that it has already invested $2.2 billion of a planned $6 billion in 43 technologies and the health certification of 87 GE sites around the world.  The strategy, healthyimagination, is in place to bring healthcare technologies to underserved populations around the world, keep employees healthy at home and provide access to real-time information that will help providers around the world. 

In addition, GE introduced 43 healthymagination validated products, including Optima MR 430s extremity scanner, Discovery CT750 HD, the world’s first high-definition CT system, and the MAC 800 portable ECG; validated the first non-GE Healthcare product, the Sunspring water purification system, which increases access to clean water; is working with partners to focus innovations on four critical needs to start accelerating healthcare information technology; will make high-tech products more affordable; broaden access to the underserved; and support consumer-driven health.

GE also announced that it has launched Qualibria, in collaboration with Intermountain Healthcare. Qualibria is software that centralizes patient data to allow providers access to real-time information, allowing them to make better decisions and monitor their performance against quality metrics, and that it has acquired Clarient, a molecular diagnostics company. Clarient’s technology, combined with GE’s strength in diagnostic imaging, helps oncologists better predict, at lower cost, which treatment choice is best for an individual patient based on their personal biology.

Through partnerships with MedHelp, Healthline and WebMD, GE said it is making healthcare information available, accessible and digestible for consumers through online and mobile applications.

GE has also partnered with Grameen Kalyan—a sister company of Grameen Bank—to improve existing health delivery systems in rural Bangladesh to improve maternal health and prevent unnecessary death using GE’s portable ultrasound system, LOGIQ Book.

GE has collaborated with Embrace—a startup company from Stanford University—to distribute ultra-low cost infant warmers throughout rural India.

With its own employees, GE’s Health Ahead employee initiative has certified 87 GE sites around the world, and by the end of 2010, 120 of 295 GE-owned and –operated campuses were tobacco-free.

GE has not forgotten about its shareholders. It has announced an increase in the “value gap” between its health spending and GE Healthcare’s earnings to drive new value for GE shareholders, and continues to lower GE’s healthcare costs by focusing on key cost-drivers and making GE employees more aware of and responsible for cost-related decisions.

In addition to the annual report, GE is keeping the public informed through healthymagination.com, the healthymagination blog, healthymagination on Twitter and Facebook, and its healthymagination Advisory Board.