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 (2003)

• 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

• Ranked by Forbes as worlds largest company
  (based on equal weighting of sales, profits,
  assets, and market value)
• 2008 revenues of 156 billion
• Close to the GDP of more than 2/3 of U.N. member
  states
• 2010 net after-tax profits of 14 billion
• 5.1 billion from U.S. operations

5
General Electric

• Makes household appliances, lighting, and medical
  equipment
• Plastics division, which produced bisphenol A,
  spun off in 2008
• Has built 91 nuclear power plants in 11 countries
  (including the troubled Fukushima Daishi plants
  in Japan)
• Including 23 plants at 11 sites in U.S.
• Produces jet engines and military hardware

6
General Electric

• Charles Wilson (CEO of GE pre- and post-WW II
  helped oversee U.S. military production during WW
  II)
• The revulsion against warwill be an almost
  insuperable obstacle for us to overcome. For that
  reason, I am convinced that we must begin now to
  set the machinery in motion for a permanent
  wartime economy.

7
General Electric

• Operates coal-burning power plants
• Major releasers of toxic mercury
• Operates a large financial services group
• Lending accounts for gt 30 of revenue, vs. lt 6
  of revenue from consumer appliances
• Responsible for over 50 of companys profits in
  recent years
• Owns a multi-billion dollar media empire
• Including NBC (49, Comcast 51), Telemundo,
  and Universal Studios

8
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
  cancers, hypothyroidism, and spontaneous
  abortions in Downwinders

9
GEs Record

• Sued radiologist who brought to light dangers of
  GEs contrast agent, Omniscan
• Causes nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (FDA black
  box warning)
• Ordered to pay 11.4 million to Bracco
  Diagnositcs for falsely/misleadingly claiming
  that its x-ray contrast agent Visipaque was
  superior to BDs Isovue

10
GEs Record

• Americas largest corporate polluter
• 116 Superfund sites nationwide
• Approximately 13 in NY

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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

12
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

13
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

14
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

15
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

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GEs Record

• Tremendous influence of environmental, energy,
  and health policy
• Spent over 25 million on federal government
  lobbying in 2009 (2 after Exxon Mobil)
• 200 million over last decade
• Many members of board of directors have
  government ties others have insurance and
  pharmaceutical industry ties

17
GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt

• 2009 compensation 5.5 million
• Named Worlds Best CEO in 3 separate Barrons
  polls
• 2006 - 2011 - On Board of NY Federal Reserve Bank

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GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt

• 2008 Named one of the 100 Most Influential
  People in the World by TIME Magazine
• 2009 - Appointed by President Obama to his
  Economic Recovery Board
• GE then became eligible, via a loophole, for ¼ of
  the 340 billion Temporary Liquidity Guarantee
  Program (debt support)

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GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt

• 2011 - Appointed by Obama as Chair of his outside
  panel of Economic Advisors and of his Council on
  Jobs and Competitiveness
• On the board of directors of The Robin Hood
  Foundation!

20
GEs Record

• Has eliminated 150,000 jobs in the U.S. in the
  last 15 years
• While receiving billions in federal contracts and
  millions in state and local subsidies
• One of nations top out-sourcers of jobs
• 1/5 of U.S. workforce eliminated since 2002
  (while overseas workforce increased)

21
GEs Record

• Executive pension plan far more generous than for
  other employees
• Continues to shift health care costs onto
  workers, despite growing profits

22
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

23
GEs Record

• GE has sponsored PGA Masters Tournament at
  Augusta National Golf Club
• Club excludes women
• CEO Immelt a member

24
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

25
GE and Corporate Taxes

• GE topped the list of corporate tax break
  recipients from 2001-2003
• 9.5 billion in tax breaks
• Between 2001 and 2010, paid only 2.3 of its 81
  billion profits in federal taxes
• Claimed tax benefits of 3.5 billion in 2010
• Under investigation for tax evasion in Brazil
• Tax department has almost 1,000 employees (known
  as the worlds best tax law firm)

26
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

27
GEs Record

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

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GEs Record

• Produces an electronic medical record, Centricity
  EMR
• Is hoping to receive some of the 19 billion
  earmarked for health care information technology
  in the current economic stimulus package.

29
GEs Record

• Named Americas Most Admired Company by Forbes
• Named one of the Worlds Most Respected
  Companies in polls conducted by Barrons and The
  Financial Times

30
Concerns About the Agreement

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

31
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

32
Concerns About the Agreement

• Occurs at time 51 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

33
Concerns About the Agreement

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

34
Concerns About the Agreement

• I contacted the CEO of New York Presbyterian
  Hospital and the head of the Ethics Department to
  obtain more information re the agreement and the
  nature of the discussion preceding the agreement
• No Response

35
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

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• A macabre twist on cradle to grave care

37
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

38
Reference

• Donohoe MT, Robinson C. Corporations and Public
  Health Overview and Case Study of GE Healthcare
  - "Most Admired Company" or Foe of Public Health.
  Social Medicine 20105(4)237-244. Available at
  http//www.socialmedicine.info/index.php/socialmed
  icine/article/view/482/1035.

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Contact Information

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