Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Work At Ariadne Labs Reveals Glimpse Of Gawande's Approach To Improving Health Care System
Stat: Ariadne Labs: Atul Gawande's Testing Ground For New Ideas In Health Care
Dr. Atul Gawande is best known as a surgeon and a writer, but it’s his experience running a Boston-based health research program that may be most relevant to his new role as chief executive of the health care venture spun out of Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase. Ariadne Labs, a partnership between a major Boston hospital and Harvard University, has since 2012 served as a testing ground for projects to improve the quality of health care around the world. The project’s track record, and how Gawande has run it, may be indicative of what’s in store for the company he’ll be heading up starting July 9. (Swetlitz, 6/27)
In other health industry news —
Bloomberg: GE's Profitable Health-Care Unit Is Getting New Life As Standalone
General Electric Co. announced Tuesday that it plans to spin off its medical division into a separate company. Based on the valuation of peer companies, the new entity could have a enterprise value, which includes debt, of between $65 billion and $70 billion, according to Karen Ubelhart, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst. That would rank it among the biggest health-care companies in the world. Over the next 12 to 18 months, GE said it will sell 20 percent of its GE Healthcare unit and spin off the rest to its shareholders tax-free. The unit, which generated $19.2 billion in revenue last year, is involved in everything from medical-imaging and monitoring devices to biomanufacturing and cell therapy. (Kasumov, 6/26)
