GE Careers Blog.

This week GE joined with economic development, civic and clinical leaders from across the Pee Dee and South Carolina to break ground on a new $17 million GE Healthcare helium liquefaction facility that will mean 50 new jobs right away and 10 permanent positions going forward. Shovels in hand, the company not only turned dirt in Florence; GE also joined an emerging trend in American manufacturing — one in which community-based investments are driving the next generation of technologies to meet healthcare industry needs, help doctors better treat patients, and produce jobs here in the U.S.

GE is partnering with healthtech startup incubator StartUp Health, selecting 13 consumer healthcare startups (originally 10) to participate in a three year program designed to nurture and accelerate their growth. After a two month screening process, today they’re announcing those 13 finalists.

The Industrial Internet, an intelligent network connecting doctors to patients and machines, has the potential to break “dark data” silos and turn data into a brilliant stream of bits that make doctors as well as patients go smarter about their jobs and choices, saving billions along the way.

Rodolfo “Rudy” Chavez received his Computer Engineering in 2009 from Marquette University. He has always felt a strong tie to the health care industry, having grown up in a family of medical professionals, but ultimately knew he wanted to work with technology. When the opportunity presented itself to do an internship with GE Healthcare, it seemed like the perfect way to synthesize his familiarity with health care and his interest in computer science. As a software engineer in the two-year GE Edison Engineering Development Program, Rudy is able to program technology and create products that make an impact.

Maine Manufacturing, which employees about 105 people in Sanford, announced it had acquired from GE Healthcare a line of products used by the food and beverage industry to test for contamination, according to John Tonkinson, the company’s vice president of sales and marketing. The acquisition of the product line will be seamless. That’s because Maine Manufacturing was already manufacturing the products for GE Healthcare, Bill Emhiser, the company’s president, told the Bangor Daily News. The acquisition will allow Maine Manufacturing to hire as many as 10 new employees in Sanford over the next two months, Emhiser said.