Connecting in Israel:GE Healthcare and Intel

The GE Healthcare center at Tirat Carmel,Israel is the site of a new lab for collaboration between GE Healthcare and Intel,which also has an R&D center in the Haifa area.The two firms will jointly evaluate their products at the new lab,aligning and optimizing Intel microprocessors and GE diagnostic imaging systems.
Intel and GE Healthcare aim to bring truly innovative technology to the medical imaging industry,Intel general manager Michelle Tinsley explained.GE and Intel hope the partnership will lead to the development of affordable and advanced healthcare technology that ultimately will bring better healthcare to more people around the world,GE Healthcare Chief Technology Officer Mike Harsh added.
GE Healthcare and Intel will both provide technology and expertise to support the new lab,while GE will contribute hosting and operational management,Intel said.The two firms employ hundreds of people at their centers in the Haifa area.
At the same time,the U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently sent a delegation of U.S. life sciences companies to Israel,including GE Healthcare;AstraZeneca's subsidiary MedImmune;Boston Scientific;and Oracle Life Sciences and Health.They met with Israeli officials such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Juval Steinitz,as well as private sector representatives.Israel is offering incentives to multinationals to open more R&D centers and provide venture capital to start-ups.Delegation leader Myron Brilliant,a senior Vice President with the U.S. Chamber,said Israel must institute regulatory reforms in the areas of intellectual property and taxation to encourage more U.S. companies to establish centers there.
General Electric(GE),Intel(INTC),Oracle(ORCL),Boston Scientific(BSX),AstraZeneca(AZN)

Coalition Fights Food Taxes

President Barack Obama has promised that health care reform will be deficit-neutral.A coalition of trade groups,businesses,unions and other organizations,as well as individuals,have banded together to resist proposed new taxes on food and beverages to partially fund the reform.In an open letter to the U.S. Congress,the coalition said they support the reform,but new taxes on food and beverages,especially those that single out a single product such as juice and soda,have no place in it.Such taxes,they say,will only burden working families already struggling in the trying economy.They will not make people healthier,teach children healthier lifestyles or change anyone's behavior.Only education and support for physical activity programs will do that.
Among those signing the letter were the National Taxpayers Union,the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,the League of United Latin American Citizens,the American Beverage Association,the National Retail Federation,Teamsters Local Union 812(New York,NY),the Pennsylvania Restaurant Association and the Wisconsin Grocers Association.The coalition,known as Americans Against Food Taxes,consists of nearly 400 groups,businesses and organizations,plus 60,000 individuals.