HispanicBusiness

Prodded by federal stimulus money, General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE) is joining the effort to move the medical industry from paper records to computer databases.

GE Healthcare Ltd. has launched an eHealth business, based in Boston, as part of its existing medical information technologies group, based in Illinois. The eHealth unit is meant to advance the current trend in moving clinics to electronic medical records by building networks that connect providers to each other and patients to their own providers.

GE expects the e-records trend to accelerate next year when the federal government begins to distribute a $564 million stimulus grant to encourage the creation of data networks, said Corey Miller, a GE Healthcare spokesman.

"We recognize that as an opportunity and are getting out ahead of it," Miller said.

GE is spending $18 million a year for five years to launch the new business.