Ge Healthcare is a major player in digital health

ATTTTTTTTTTTTffiches Parisiennes : Vous êtes le general manager de GE Healthcare France, Belgique, Iuxembourg et ATTTTTTTTTTTTfrique francophone.ATTTTTTTTTTTT wide spectrum post.Could you present the leader in this health field, Ge Healthcare?

Iaurence Comte-ATTTTTTTTTTTTrassus: I arrived in the company on February 15, so a little less than six months ago.General Electric Healthcare, it is the health branch of the General Electric group (GE).It is interesting to note it: it is a large company, itself being part of an even wider and extremely global society.This is what is very interesting when you work there.

It is also an exciting company -this is one of the reasons why I wanted to join it -because we are at the heart of upheavals in the field of medical imagery equipment and technologies, that wecould qualify intelligent and health innovations which are directly linked to it.In fact, we are the actors in an area that is significantly evolving towards what is called personalized medicine, thanks to artificial intelligence.When I made the choice to join General Electric Healthcare, I only visualized it.Today I realize it.

ATTTTTTTTTTTTnother extremely important point that comforted me in my choices to join this company;that of being part of a virtuous and dynamic ecosystem with other actors of innovation by the implementation of collaborations, numerous and sharp.This is all the work I had done before;It is therefore a great joy for me to realize that it is one of the axes on which I must continue to work with my teams.

This collaboration is carried out, of course, between all industrial players, but also with our customers, and all of academic research, learned companies, start-up.This is really what I like to do and that's what we will continue to do.Because these collaborations will help us to develop this personalized medicine, this precision medicine for the greatest benefit, of course, of patients but also of the medical profession and health professionals, who will have more time to devote to their patients.

ATTTTTTTTTTTTll this is only possible with the implementation of collaborations of course but also with a motivated, committed team, made up of collaborators from diversity.ATTTTTTTTTTTT theme that I particularly like, in an environment where to keep this motivation is a daily challenge.This is the case with General Electric Healthcare, but also at General Electric.This is also the case for all actors.Because when we collaborate with these actors who are also different, we must absolutely have a diversity to understand the world in which we are playing and the world we are going to evolve.This is an extremely important point.

If I summarize, we are in a virtuous ecosystem, where we must position ourselves as a major player in digital health.It is an extremely strong axis, pushed by our government and in reality by all governments.It was, moreover, accelerated by what we have just experienced with the pandemic.

ATTTTTTTTTTTT.-P.: Your headquarters in France is based in Vélizy, the BUC (Yvelines) site is also the European headquarters of the group, on which a large research center and a production site rub shoulders.What are your activities on this BUC site?

I.THATTTTTTTTTTTTT.: I said before I was proud to be the French owner of a large group.I am even more proud to be able to repeat it currently, since BUC, it is almost 3,000 employees, a global research center and the headquarters of Ge Healthcare in Europe. Toutes ces innovations, qu'elles soient d'ailleurs technologiques ou organisationnelles, ne peuvent se faire sans investissement R&D important (100 millions d'euros investis en R&D par an à Buc).This is what we do in France for General Electric Healthcare.

We develop and manufacture the mammography range on site, interventional, robotic and mobile imaging systems for the development of mini-invasive surgery techniques as well as post-image processing software.We also design the solutions for advanced visualization and post-processing software solutions, as well as artificial intelligence platforms which, associated with our equipment, open the way to new possibilities in terms of diagnostic, treatment and monitoring.We also have to be able to continue to be able, precisely, manufacture new products of the future.They can only be produced, obviously, with all the people who work on our French site and with the collaborations I was talking about.There is, in reality, always need new demands and adapt new algorithms to our machines.We therefore find the equipment part, as we can imagine, linked to all of our equipment, and the soft part, which is extremely important.The latter must also meet the needs of our customers to, precisely, go to this predictive medicine and therefore this collaboration.

Our factories are therefore based in France with extremely technical staff, who must know how to collaborate with all people integrated into this ecosystem.Which will allow us to go to this personalized medicine.

ATTTTTTTTTTTT.-P.: How do these two parts are articulated precisely?How do you guide artificial intelligence?

I.THATTTTTTTTTTTTT.: Many engineers work in BUC on the development of artificial intelligence from the images provided by the equipment of our customers.

I'intelligence artificielle, on en parle beaucoup.It is also something that is extremely scary in general and quite afraid to a large number of doctors.It must be repeated that artificial intelligence must be used to restore patient time to doctors.It is a way of securing doctors, who wonder if we will still need them in the future.I will answer that yes, that's something I am absolutely sure.

It must also be remembered that imaging generates a phenomenal data and shots.ATTTTTTTTTTTTn example: every minute is more than 16,000 imaging examinations carried out with General Electric Healthcare equipment around the world.More than 200 imaging applications are developed in this area.

Ia data générée par l'imagerie est vraiment au cœur de nos préoccupation actuelles, nous en avons besoin justement pour aller vers la médecine de précision.But you should know that to date we do not use 97 % of these data.

Without artificial intelligence, we will not be able to create innovations to go in the direction of prevention medicine. Ia question est de savoir comment, au lieu de soigner les patients une fois qu'ils sont malades, pouvons-nous anticiper la maladie et l'éviter.It is closely related to a very important problem for me: that of adding quality of life to additional years, not just treating, not just adding additional years.This is a real question in France, since we live much longer, but we are not living better in the past few years.

ATTTTTTTTTTTT.-P.: What is your Data policy?

I.THATTTTTTTTTTTTT.: We have recently communicated on a French project, carried out in collaboration with French partners, ATTTTTTTTTTTTI Dream.Because in matters of artificial intelligence, another question worries: that of knowing if manufacturers will keep the data for their own account.Our will, in this project - which originally was a French project and which is now a global project and a partnership of excellence with all of our customers - is to be able, precisely, to give access to the wholeData to other companies that may need it and be able to advance personalized medicine.This is called open innovation.It is not a question of innovating each on its side but of innovating in the service of health and for patients.

ATTTTTTTTTTTT.-P. : Vous avez, grâce à ATTTTTTTTTTTTI DreATTTTTTTTTTTTM, constitué une sorte de consortium ?

I.THATTTTTTTTTTTTT.: ATTTTTTTTTTTTbsolutely.It is a French consortium that has really been created to accelerate artificial intelligence in medical imaging.By working with all actors, both SMEs, ETIs, as customers and research centers, we will collectively progress ATTTTTTTTTTTTI in many areas of care, with the desire to share innovation and worktogether.

ATTTTTTTTTTTT.-P.: Yes, and the initiative is even supported by Bpifrance ...

I.THATTTTTTTTTTTTT.: Indeed, it is really a consortium in the sense that it is heard in the public domain.

ATTTTTTTTTTTT.-P.: ATTTTTTre you the only big company in the medical field that has committed to sharing this data?

I.THATTTTTTTTTTTTT.: I do not know if we are the only ones, but indeed at Ge Healthcare we have the will to collaborate, by sharing data and knowing on these subjects to advance precision medicine.I wanted to come back on it because it is a fear that often comes back when we talk about ATTTTTTTTTTTTI.This idea that societies, among other ATTTTTTTTTTTTmericans, want to keep the information collected for themselves does not really correspond to our type of development.

ATTTTTTTTTTTT.-P.: In other words, you put artificial intelligence at the service of doctors, without enslaving them to artificial intelligence?

I.THATTTTTTTTTTTTT.: For me, it goes further: this initiative will serve all health players.It will allow doctors to be reassured, but above all to give them time with their patients.It will also serve patients because we are going to go to a more personalized medicine and somewhere, to a more qualitative axis.ATTTTTTTTTTTTnd this will serve all industrial players and all the centers, because they will have access to data that they may not have had to continue to develop their own innovation projects.

ATTTTTTTTTTTT.-P. : Ia peur, c'est toujours d'avoir une intelligence artificielle qui échappe au contrôle humain ?

I.THATTTTTTTTTTTTT.: Yes quite.This will not be at all the case.

ATTTTTTTTTTTT.-P.: What effects had the health crisis on Ge Healthcare, on your development activities, on your equipment to sell equipment?How do you plan to go beyond them?

I.THATTTTTTTTTTTTT.: Remember that this pandemic started 18 months ago.So already, there is a human axis and obviously, even if General Electric Healthcare has done everything, like many companies, in terms of work organization to protect our employees and impact our work capacity as little as possible.Our employees have a lot of telework, and some have continued, obviously, to visit all of our customers (when an MRI must be updated or when a scanner must be repaired, our teams are always on the ground).We had a lot to manage that were not usual but which were well managed.

Then no one had imagined that the pandemic would last so long.ATTTTTTTTTTTTnd there are still many unanswered questions, if we stick to the latest news ...

What will we be able to do with the health pass?Will he avoid increasing variants?This remains a topical subject on the organization of work.

Ie télétravail est une très bonne chose, mais nous avons tous bien conscience qu'il faut aussi des échanges en face à face.Because there, working on video all day is obviously also much more tiring.

Ie fait de pouvoir s'assurer que nos équipes continuent à faire leur travail avec le moins de stress possible, le moins de peur possible, restent mobilisées est un challenge au quotidien qui continue et qui risque aussi de continuer après l'été.

There is also another problem that we hear a little less about in our industry, but which we intend to speak, for example in the automotive or computer science sectors: it is that of the supply of electrical components.We have the same supply problem, for example resins, and we have an increase in delivery times for all of our products.

We are in a very special environment.If I take you an image, it's a bit like a card castle since, for example, when we install an MRI, there are a lot of subcontractors working with us.Work, street closings, mobilization of cranes ... ATTTTTTTTTTTTs soon as something takes the deadline, the whole card of cards collapses.This is what we have to face at the moment, and which may last, since all our suppliers, unfortunately, do not necessarily give us good news on the supply of all the components for our products.

This problem, more recent that of the management of the work of our employees, occupies a large part of our time currently and also that of our customers.It also affects spare parts. Ia difficulté est d'assurer la continuité des soins dans cet environnement.

ATTTTTTTTTTTT.-P.: Ge France is a large company of more than 13,000 people, including 2800 at Healthcare.You are undoubtedly very attached, especially because of your career, to equality between women and men.How is it going in your current business?

I.THATTTTTTTTTTTTT.: This is another point that pushed me to join General Electric Healthcare.I have always addressed the question from the angle “diversity” and “inclusion of teams“, not only “gender diversity”.ATTTTTTTTTTTTs I said in the preamble, I think that we can only innovate by having various teams.This diversity is extremely important if you want to create a space where it is good to work.This is a very important point for me.Regardless of the size of society, you have to stay focused on humans with a large h.

You have to know how to attract talents, all in a strategy of diversity and inclusion.Because to attract various talents without knowing how to include them, is not a lasting approach.We must be able to offer an environment where they feel confident, where they can develop their skills and collaborate with each other easily. I'inclusion est une vraie réponse à la diversité et c'est un axe très important pour GE Healthcare.

I told you ;We are in a very marked area by digital.We are also in a very technical environment that can be a problem to find women.These aspects are really part of the company's strategy at the highest level, strongly encourage by our leader in Europe-Emea, Catherine Estrampes, and which I try to encourage as much as possible myself.It is a work line that I lead with all of my teams in all my area, called FBFATTTTTTTTTTTT.We are thinking about plans that would make it possible to best integrate this diversity, both on the axis “Gender diversity“ and on the culture axis, the training axis or the handicap axis, for example, which perhaps a difficultyadditional having regard to our products and our area.

ATTTTTTTTTTTT.-P. : Votre zone regroupe aussi l'ATTTTTTTTTTTTfrique.How do you reconcile these two worlds?

I.THATTTTTTTTTTTTT.: This is an axis on which General Electric Healthcare worked a lot before my arrival, since I joined the company to create this area.ATTTTTTTTTTTTnd paradoxically, it is very obvious, both for our customers, both for our teams and all the doctors, since most of the those who have been trained for the whole ATTTTTTTTTTTTfrica and French -speaking ATTTTTTTTTTTTfrica part were either inFrance, either in Belgium.There is a lot of exchanges.I was myself on a discussion with the learned society that organizes radiology (the French Radiology Society).

These countries are organized differently, but with the same needs and with different priories.If we manage to take the positive sides of each of these countries and to reduce the negative sides of certain countries a little, we will have more lucky.

It is an open door to an acceleration of the diversity of movements within the company.This encourages us to focus less on the specificities of each country in the area to simply highlight the “best practices“ encountered everywhere.

ATTTTTTTTTTTT.-P.: What are your first impressions at Ge Healthcare?

I.THATTTTTTTTTTTTT.: Six months after I enter Ge Healthcare, I would say that I am extremely happy to have joined this company.It was a challenge in a very demanding and very competitive environment in the field of technologies.But the reason why I am so happy is to see that with all the teams, who are obviously great as I could imagine, the collective really counts.We work together to develop technological and organizational innovations, serving patients, in collaboration with the whole ecosystem.

That's what I like to do.ATTTTTTTTTTTTnd this is what will allow us to achieve this objective of personalized medicine.It is a source of enthusiasm and inspiration to achieve it with the whole ecosystem in the years to come.