GE Healthcare announced today its plans to invest $2 billion over the next five years to accelerate the development of innovative software for healthcare systems and applications. GE Healthcare has a long history in software with its Healthcare IT business; and this investment is designed to advance current and future offerings in order to address new and pressing operational and productivity challenges faced by healthcare organizations around the world. GE Healthcare will work closely with the GE Software Center of Excellence in San Ramon, California - as well as at various research and development hubs around the world - to develop new software solutions.

Many people still struggle with the idea of “printing” things by adding one layer of material on top of another, but Michael Idelchik, who runs GE’s advanced technologies research, is already talking about “printing large portions of jet engines.” GE Aviation, for example, is using lasers to print fuel nozzles for next-generation jet engines. The nozzles are 25 percent lighter and as much as five times more durable than the existing model welded from 20 different parts. “We already know that it can be done, we’ve been playing with it for a while,” Idelchik says.