Smith Micro Enters Health-Care Market
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Smith Micro Software Inc. has joined the swelling ranks of companies that want to make a buck in health care.
In the first quarter, the Mission Viejo maker of communication software sold $50,000 worth of its videoconferencing systems to Nashville-based hospital giant Columbia/HCA Healthcare. Columbia/HCA is testing a product concept--including both Smith Micro’s system and a computerized notebook by Toshiba--that’s intended to allow doctors to make “on-the-fly” diagnoses of patients at remote locations.
Smith Micro says its product allows the doctor to view live, high-resolution images of the patient over the telephone lines.
A Smith Micro spokesman says the company hopes to boost sales to the health-care market this year. It also expects the product might have applications in rural health care, home care, long-term care, assisted living and emergency medicine.
The company intends to use the health-care market as its entry into a number of markets where it can sell directly, which could help reduce its dependency on lower-margin sales to systems manufacturers. The company also sees opportunities to make direct sales of its video-conferencing software to insurance, real estate and security markets.
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Barbara Marsh covers health care for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7762 and at [email protected]
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