As a part of its extensive marketing and business endeavor, pertaining to its $17 billion-per-year health equipment and technology business, General Electric Co. (GE) has worked out a strategy for providing new solutions to health care - by the way of its recently-launched initiative called "Healthymagination."

For the new venture, GE has earmarked an amount of $6 billion till 2015. Of this amount, a $1.2-billion spending is earmarked for health-care research and development over the six-year period; and $3 billion for the development of nearly 100 health-care products and services that will not only be economical and easily accessible, but would also improve the quality of health care.

In addition, GE has allocated $1 billion for spending on partnerships with other companies, like Intel Corp., for augmenting its efforts to provide clean water and marketing. The company's health-care-finance group will advance lending by $2 billion to $22 billion, urging hospitals to improve information technology, principally in rural areas.

Talking about the "Healthymagination" initiative, Jeffrey R. Immelt, Chairman and CEO of GE, said: "We must innovate with smarter processes and technologies that help doctors and hospitals deliver better health care to more people at a lower cost." Immelt added that though the high end in health care will always remain, the GE enterprise will be "broader in terms of price points and offerings."