NEW YORK, Feb. 15 (GenomeWeb News) - IBM yesterday announced a new program to assist healthcare providers with the up-front costs of purchasing new medical equipment, including genomic-related technologies.
The program, called Progress Payment Offering for Medical Equipment Leasing, will allow customers in the healthcare industry to defray the large up-front costs associated with purchasing new medical equipment by making smaller monthly payments before the equipment is installed.
In a typical leasing program, IBM Global Financing will advance a large percentage of the cost of an instrument to the manufacture, and then create an interest-only loan for the purchaser for that amount.
According to Terry Trierweiler, a business development executive for IGF, the program was originally intended to focus on diagnostic imaging equipment because IBM identified the greatest need in that area. However, the financing program will also apply to molecular biology tools frequently used in clinical diagnostics, such as mass spectrometers, blood analyzers, pathology equipment, and gene sequencers, she said.
Trierweiler also said that besides the income generated from interest collected on loans, IBM will benefit by being able to target a wider range of customers within the healthcare industry.
The program is currently available in the US and Canada, but IBM will soon be expanding it to Europe, as well as countries in Northern Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, Trierweiler said.