The $ 1 billion Instrumentarium Corporation is now a full-fledged part of GE Medical Systems, giving the US giant a much stronger grip on the medical electronics and instrumentation industry worldwide.

Announcing this at a news conference in Dusseldorf, Olli Riikkala, executive vice president of GE Medical Systems Information Technologies said that the integration would help both companies to leverage each other's strengths and avoid duplication in research.

He said Instrumentarium was allocating aproximately 8 to 9 per cent of its sales to R&D but the research were often in the same direction that GE Medical Systems was attempting to move. This meant there was a lot of avoidable duplication, which would now not take place.

He said the takeover was formally completed on October 9, but it would take some more time before the two companies were able to work with total coordination. Till then, Instrumentarium would be able to meet its commitments to its existing clients.

Riikkala said the challenges before the healthcare technology companies was increasing day by day as the 'less skilled professionals' were coming into the hospitals partly because the salaries and career prospects were not attractive enough. This was particularly true of the UK, he added.

Elaborating on the subject, Dow Wilson, president and CEO of GE Medical Systems Information Technologies, said the acquisition would enable the new company to make a difference in technologies used inside the Operating Rooms and Intensive Care Units (ICU) which were an area of strength for Instrumentarium until now.

The Instrumentarium Group includes such names as Datex Ohmeda, Deio, Medko Medical and Ohmeda Medical, which are well known to hospitals across the world.