founded 2004 headquarters chicago illinois united states area served worldwide key people john l. flannery ceo 1 products x ray ct mri and ecg machines ultrasound solutions bone densitometry patient monitoring incubators and respiratory care systems services medical equipment technology solutions for drug discovery and biopharmaceuticals solutions for clinicians and health care administrators revenue us 14.85 billion 2014 operating income us 2.67 billion 2014 number of employees 46 000 parent general electric website www.gehealthcare.com ge healthcare is a subsidiary of general electric ge formerly headquartered in little chalfont buckinghamshire united kingdom ; in early 2016 headquarters were moved to chicago . 2 the company provides medical imaging and information technologies medical diagnostics patient monitoring systems drug discovery bio pharmaceutical manufacturing technologies and performance solutions services . contents 1 history 1.1 19th century 1.2 20th century 1.3 21st century 2 criticism 3 operations 4 major competitors 5 references 6 external links history edit 19th century edit in 1893 c.f. samms and j.b. wantz founded the victor electric company in a basement . by 1896 they made electrostatic generators for exciting x ray tubes and electrotherapeutic devices . 3 they had a staff of six and a capital of 3 000 invested in the company . citation needed victor electric 4 plunged into the x ray business and by 1896 one year after roentgen s discovery were making x ray machines . the business grew rapidly and so in 1896 moved into new premises three times the original size but this did not solve the space problems and the company made 3 moves by 1899 . citation needed victor electric had competitors . in 1896 g.a.frye began making x ray tubes which in 1897 was purchased by swett & lewis as the first merger in the x ray business . citation needed 20th century edit during the first years it was easier to keep up with the competition than space requirements . by 1903 victor electric had outgrown its facilities at 418 dearborn st. in chicago and bought two floors of a building at 55 market street chicago . this was again only a temporary stop ; by 1910 it was too small and the firm moved again in 1911 to a building at the corner of jackson blvd. and damen avenue . this was the first permanent home of victor electric co. they stayed there 35 years and during this time gradually acquired all the space in the building and several around it . during the first 20 years of the x ray business many new names appeared . in 1901 the western electric coil co. was formed . in 1902 macalaster & wiggin purchased the x ray tube business of swett & lewis . two other companies were the radio electric co. which was later to be known as snook roentgen manufacturing and the scheidel western x ray coil co. in 1907 homer clyde snook introduced the snook apparatus the first interrupterless device produced for x ray work . the snook apparatus was manufactured in england . 5 in 1916 the first significant merger took place scheidel western snook roentgen macalaster & wiggin and victor electric co. were merged with victor the surviving name . victor s two founders had key roles in the new firm ; c.f.samms was company president and j.b.wantz was vice president of manufacturing and engineering . four years later in 1920 a second major merger was accomplished when victor was acquired by general electric 6 which was at that time the foremost manufacturer of x ray tubes . citation needed the marriage of victor electric and general electric became complete of july 28 1926 when victor was declared a wholly owned affiliate of general electric . the merger brought renewed vitality to the organization and victor entered the foreign market with equipment sold and serviced in nearly 70 countries . in 1930 the name was changed from victor to general electric x ray corporation . citation needed world war ii saw the dramatic use of x rays in industry for non destructive testing of war materials . it also saw the broad use of x rays as a medical tool for military services . as the war ended ge x ray corporation continued to grow . greater production capacity and greater expertise was needed in the core business of building x ray tubes . since the tubes were made from hand blown glass the decision was made to move the company 90 miles north to milwaukee wisconsin in order to tap into the enormous amount of glass blowing talent in milwaukee s beer brewing industry . the company moved from jackson blvd. in chicago to a 43 acre 170 000 m2 site in the city of west milwaukee which had been used for building turbochargers during the war . the street in front was renamed electric avenue and the general electric x ray corporation had a new home in 1947 . in 1951 the corporate structure was dissolved and the name changed to general electric x ray department . this new name lasted less than 10 years as the department divested itself of its industrial x ray business widened its medical business and took on the name of ge medical systems department . one of the reasons for the name of medical systems was due to the increase in the electro medical business which began in 1961 with the introduction of patient monitoring equipment . by 1967 modular equipment was developed which was soon popular in cardiac and intensive care units . early in 1960 pacemakers were developed in corporate research & development in schenectady new york and in 1969 the standby pacemaker was developed . in 1968 the biomedical business section opened its first factory in edgerton avenue . late in 1970 a surgical package was introduced and in 1971 equipment to monitor blood gasses during surgery was introduced . later in 1971 biomedical opened a 9 000 square meter admin and engineering building opposite its factory and in 1972 the section was renamed the cardio surgical product section . with the growth of its medical business the general electric company upgraded the department to the medical systems division in 1971 . also in 1971 a major expansion programme was started and the waukesha factory was planned . work started in july 1972 and was completed in 1973 . in 1973 work on ct was started and eventually the first ct machine was installed in 1976 . development continued to the first ct 8800 and after long negotiations ge acquired the medical division of emi group ltd. in late 1980 soon after the 1979 takeover of emi medicial division by thorn electric company . 7 the americal anti trust authorities stopped the takeover in the usa however and the emi factory in chicago was bought up by omni medical who continued to make cts for a number of years . meanwhile back at ge the patient monitoring department was sold off in 1981 . the initial boost provided by the emi takeover turned into the doldrums as reaganomics sent the us dollar soaring so in 1984 ge bought a 49 % share of yms yokogawa medical systems a japanese company . yms proceeded to produce high quality low cost diagnostic equipment for the world market with astounding energy producing new ct models with a speed that was and still remains hard to match . in 1983 ge medical started investing heavily in magnetic resonance imaging mri technology investing nearly 1 billion us dollars in a new plant in waukesha and the mr signa was born which would go on to become the very successful mr model range . the magnet plant in florence usa was opened a short time later giving ge its own magnet production . in the same year ge divested its dental x ray division to form gendex dental systems . in 1985 ge acquired technicare from johnson and johnson . originally named ohio nuclear and in 1979 after another fusion ohio nuclear unirad the name was changed to technicare in 1982 . technicare with headquarters in cleveland ohio had been producing a range of rotate stationary cts with an installed base in the thousands as well as some x ray diagnostic equipment and a nascent mri product range . up to this time the medical systems division had simply been divided into domestic and international but in 1987 it was decided to re organize into the three poles of america europe and pacific . in 1988 ge medical europe merged with cgr a medical equipment supplier based in france to form general electric cgr medical systems . the european headquarters were moved from hammersmith uk to buc near paris . in 1992 ge had a setback after long negotiations to buy picker international who were a major producer of ct and mr equipment . the deal was not approved by the american authorities and so ge just bought the picker service organization in the u.k. leaving the rest of picker intact . in 1994 it was decided to change the name in europe from ge cgr back to general electric medical systems . at the close of 1998 ge medical acquired the nuclear and mr businesses of elscint then a division of elron based in haifa israel the ct business being bought by picker and in the same year marquette medical systems became a wholly owned subsidiary of ge medical . 8 in 1998 ge medical bought diasonics vingmed ltd. from elbit medical imaging of haifa israel thus expanding its ultrasound imaging business . 9 21st century edit packaging radioactive pharmaceuticals at ge healthcare s facility in amersham england . in 2001 ge medical systems acquired san francisco ca based ct maker imatron inc for 210 million . imatron produced an electron beam tomography ebt scanner that performs imaging applications used by physicians specializing in cardiology pulmonology and gastroenterology . the formal imatron business was later incorporated into ge healthcare s diagnostic imaging business segment . in early 2002 ge healthcare had acquired medicalogic creator of the former logician an ambulatory electronic medical records system for approximately 32 million . 10 by jan 2003 ge acquired millbrook corporation maker of millbrook practice manager a billing and scheduling system for doctors offices . 11 ge healthcare it would later merge the two products into a single pm emr solution although the stand alone emr product is still available and in development . also in april 2002 ge healthcare completed the acquisition of visualization technology inc. boston ma ; a manufacturer of intra operative medical devices and related products for use in minimally invasive image guided surgery . 12 in 2003 ge healthcare acquired instrumentarium including its datex ohmeda division a producer manufacturer and supplier of anesthesia machines and mechanical ventilators . to satisfy regulatory concerns in the united states and in europe ge healthcare was forced to divest the spacelabs medical division of instrumentarium . currently ge healthcare owns 80 % of all anesthesia machines in the united states and 60 % of the machines in the world . the former instrumentarium business was incorporated into ge healthcare s clinical systems business segment . citation needed in 2004 the former amersham plc business segments were separated into the ge healthcare medical diagnostics and life sciences business segments and 1 may 2013 both the business were combined again under the ge life sciences brand with kieran murphy taking the leadership role . also in 2004 ge healthcare along with other healthcare companies built a research reactor for neutron and unit cell research at ge s european research center near garching outside of munich germany . it is the only such reactor currently in operation . in 2005 sir william castell ceo of ge healthcare and former ceo of amersham plc stepped down as ceo to become chairman of the wellcome trust a charity that fosters and promotes human and animal research in