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General Electric’s health-care information-technology business and Microsoft have teamed up to form a new healthcare software company. The new company will develop and sell software systems, which make it easier for healthcare providers to store, access and share patient information.

“The global health-care challenges of access, cost and quality of care delivery are creating a new focus on the performance and accountability of health-care delivery systems,” said GE Chairman and Chief Executive Jeffrey R. Immelt. “This venture will demonstrate what is possible when leading companies with complementary capabilities work together to meet a common goal.”

The 50-50 venture is yet to have a name, but according to the companies it will employ about 700 people and will be based near Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

With the healthcare software multiple healthcare providers will be able to track patients. For instance, a cancer patient’s primary care physician will be able to see how the patient fared when he or she went to the liver specialist.

Michael Simpson, a GE Healthcare executive who will serve as chief executive of the new venture when it begins operations next year, said, “Part of the problem in healthcare is there’s so many doctors; there’s so much information to bring together. There’s not a single place for that. When you talk about how do you bend the cost curve, it’s not about making big monolithic systems; it’s about joining systems and aggregating the data together so that people can make better decisions.”

GE already has a partnership with Intel for developing Tele-health products. So the company now has partnerships on both sides of the Wintel. With healthcare costs surging, a lot of money is being spent on technology in an attempt to make systems more efficient.

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