Bringing Bad Things to Life

1
Bringing Bad Things to Life

• The alliance between GE Medical Systems and
  NY-Presbyterian Hospital
  
• Martin Donohoe

2
The Partners

• NY-Presbyterian Hospital
• one of the largest academic health care
  institutions in the U.S.
  
• GE Medical Systems
• Subsidiary of General Electric
• 9 billion annual revenues

3
The Agreement

• 10-year, 500 million agreement requires NYP to
  purchase products and services from GEMS in
  exchange for purported discounts on medical
  supplies and the promise of enhanced
  technological standardization and simplification

4
General Electric

• Worlds largest company by market share
• 2007 revenues of 168 billion
• Greater than the GDP of more than 2/3 of U.N.
  member states
  
• 2007 net after-tax profits of 21 billion

5
General Electric

• Makes household appliances, plastics, lighting,
  and medical equipment
  
• Plastics division, which produced bisphenol A,
  spun off in 2008
  
• Produces jet engines and military hardware
• Has built 91 nuclear power plants in 11 countries

6
General Electric

• Operates coal-burning power plants
• Major releasers of toxic mercury
• Operates a financial services group
• Owns a 43 billion media empire
• Including NBC, Telemundo, and Universal Studios

7
GEs History

• Conducted unethical human subject experiments on
  prisoners, involving testicular irradiation, from
  1940s to 1960s
  
• Intentionally-released excessive radiation from
  its Hanford, WA nuclear reactor in the 1980s, to
  determine how far it would travel
  
• May have contributed to increased thyroid cancer
  risk in Downwinders

8
GEs Record

• Americas largest corporate polluter
• 75 Superfund sites nationwide
• 13 in NY

9
GEs Record

• Between 1947 and 1977, two of its capacitor
  manufacturing plants dumped 1.3 million pounds of
  PCBs into the Hudson River
  
• Probable human carcinogens with adverse effects
  on liver, kidney, nervous system, and
  reproductive organs (EPA)
  
• 200 mi of Hudson Superfund site

10
GEs Record

• Has spent millions to avoid Hudson cleanup and to
  weaken or eliminate Superfund Law
  
• Contributes to corporate front groups
• Promulgate an anti-scientific and
  pseudo-scientific agenda
  
• Conduct media disinformation campaigns in an
  attempt to weaken health and environmental
  regulations

11
GEs Record

• Signed licensing agreement with Cornell Medical
  School in 2001 re CT scan technologies to screen
  for lung cancer
  
• Cornell Research Foundation funding primarily
  from the Vector Group (parent company Liggett
  tobacco company)
  
• Antonio Gotto (Cornell Medical School Dean) and
  Arthur Mahon (Vice Chairman of Colleg Board of
  Overseers) on Foundations Board of Directors

12
GEs Record

• Dean Gotto stated Cornell publicly disclosed the
  Vector Groups role in funding the Foundation
  
• However, searches via google and Cornells own
  search engine turn up no such disclosure, and
  Cornells press office did not respond to inquiry
  re the original disclosure
• Foundation funded EL-CAP study (NEJM), which
  concluded that screening asymptomatic smokers for
  lung cancer can detect curable tumors
  
• Controversial finding, contradicted by other
  studies

13
GEs Record

• Vector Group/Liggetts role as funding source not
  mentioned in original article, in violation of
  conflict of interest disclosure policy
  
• Patents and royalties from GE technology not
  noted either
  
• Large profit potentials for GE (increased
  screening) and Liggett (reassured smokers less
  likely to quit)
  
• For references, see http//phsj.org/wp-content/upl
  oads/2008/05/elcap-vector-cornell-coi-bioethics-li
  stserv-posts-4-08.doc

14
GEs Record

• Tremendous influence of environmental, energy,
  and health policy
  
• Spent 31 million lobbying Congress, federal
  agencies, and Executive Office of the President
  in 2001 and 2002
  
• Many members of board of directors have
  government ties

15
GEs Record

• Has eliminated 150,000 jobs in last 15 years
• While receiving billions in federal contracts and
  millions in state and local subsidies
  
• One of nations top out-sourcers of jobs

16
GEs Record

• Continues to under-fund employee pension plan,
  despite very generous compensation packages for
  executives
  
• Continues to shift health care costs onto
  workers, despite growing profits

17
GEs Record

• Cited by Human Rights Watch for systematic
  workers rights violations in the U.S. and
  abroad
  
• 858 OSHA workplace citations from 1990-2001
• Investments include for-profit prison enterprises

18
GEs Record

• Topped 2002 Project on Government Oversights
  list of repeat offenders for defrauding U.S.
  taxpayers
  
• Paid more than 982 million in fines, judgments,
  and out-of-court settlements between 1990 and
  2002
  
• Financial services division fined 100 million
  for unfair debt collection practices and
  bankruptcy court malfeasance

19
GE and Corporate Taxes

• GE topped the list of corporate tax break
  recipients from 2001-2003
  
• 9.5 billion in tax breaks

20
GEs Record

• In 1990s, Pentagons Defense Contract Management
  Agency created special investigations office
  specifically for GE
  
• Nevertheless, company has been awarded
  increasingly costly reconstruction contracts in
  Iraq and Afghanistan

21
GEs Record

• The Patient Channel
• Shown in hospital rooms throughout country
• Advertising vehicle for drug companies
• Criticized by JCAHO for manipulative marketing
  practices

22
Concerns About the Agreement

• Provides GE with financial incentives to promote
  high technology purchases
  
• Hospital prohibited from purchasing more
  effective equipment from other companies

23
Concerns About the Agreement

• Augments trend in academic medical centers to
  promote the use of expensive, high-technology
  care at expense of preventive care and public
  health measures
• Highly reimbursable
• Services may be redundant in certain locations

24
Concerns About the Agreement

• Occurs at time 45 million Americans uninsured
• Academic medical centers promoting luxury primary
  care clinics and seeking wealthy overseas
  patients while cutting back on services to the
  un- and under-insured

25
Concerns About the Agreement

• Academic medical centers becoming increasingly
  corporatized
  
• Research exclusivity contracts
• Secrecy
• gag clauses
• skewing of research agenda

26
Concerns About the Agreement

• Patients with developmental anomalies and cancers
  caused by GEs pollution diagnosed with GE
  scanners and treated with GE-manufactured
  therapeutic devices, increasing GEs profit

27

• A macabre twist on cradle to grave care

28
Solutions

• NY-P should cancel agreement
• Health care providers and organizations should
  condemn this unholy alliance
  
• Medical and ethical organizations should develop
  standards regarding future agreements

29
Reference

• Donohoe MT. GE Bringing Bad Things to Life
  Cradle to Grave Health Care and the Alliance
  between General Electric Medical Systems and New
  York-Presbyterian Hospital, Synthesis/Regeneration
  2006(Fall)4131-3 (abridged version complete
  version available on website)

30
Contact Information

• Public Health and Social Justice Website
• http//www.phsj.org
• martindonohoe_at_phsj.org