Subject: [NEXTEL-1] When doctors go wireless - 2002-12-02

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 02 Dec 2002 14:30:34 -0500

http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2002/12/02/story8.html

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Updated: 2:17 PM EST
Monday, Dec 2, 2002

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From the November 29, 2002 print edition

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When doctors go wireless

Salar Inc. strikes deals with Hopkins and Pitt hospitals

Scott Graham   Staff

A fledgling Baltimore technology firm is changing the way hospitals do business.

Salar Inc., a startup company housed in Baltimore City's Emerging Technology Center, has developed wireless technology that helps doctors store and access patient information in order to better care for patients and more accurately bill for their services.

Salar, which was founded almost three years ago by four 1999 graduates of Cornell University, has licensed its technology to Johns Hopkins University and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The company has other hospital groups in its sites.

"The theme to it all is that the technology allows doctors to spend more time with their patients by reducing administrative tasks," said Todd Johnson, one of Salar's four founders. "We give them pertinent information in their pockets by using wireless devices like Palm Pilots and pocket PCs."

Salar (http://www.salarinc.com) is one of a growing number of technology firms that has jumped to the aid of health care providers who are looking for quicker and easier ways to store and access information about patients. In the face of a changing regulatory environment, hospitals, doctors and other health care providers have turned to the technology industry to solve some of their paperwork problems.

Hospitals

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Many hospitals in Greater Baltimore have worked with tech firms to streamline their record-keeping and note-taking tasks. In the end, the technology upgrades should save hospitals money and save doctors time.

"The attraction to wireless technology is that the end result is higher quality of care," said Sean O'Neill, the director of information systems at Baltimore's LifeBridge Health (http://www.lifebridgehealth.com), which owns Sinai Hospital and Northwest Hospital Center. "Health care always has been a little slower to embrace technology, but we're moving faster than we used to."

Salar, a company of seven employees, was born out of necessity — medical necessity.

When the federal government required physicians to explain in their claims why patients needed certain procedures, Salar began developing technology that allows doctors to more thoroughly collect that information, or what the industry tabs "medical necessity" information.

Salar, which moved to Baltimore from upstate New York last spring, successfully pitched its technology to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. Since it was introduced in April, Johns Hopkins Bayview's cardiology division has increased its collections about 35 percent.

"That is really the core of our business, helping doctors make records of medically necessary events for billing purposes," Johnson said.

But that's not where Salar's business ends.

The company also has developed wireless technology that allows Johns Hopkins (http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org) physicians and other doctors — about 30,000 nationwide — to access information about prescription drugs via hand-held devices. The technology has become more valuable in the post-Sept. 11 bioterrorism age of anthrax and smallpox scares, Johnson said.

Salar's work with Hopkins is leading to more business opportunities.

After working with Salar at Johns Hopkins Bayview, Mark T. Hopkins, now chief information officer for three facilities in the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's system, approached the company about developing a wireless network to link the Pittsburgh health system's 4,000 doctors.

The technology, which also can be accessed via hand-held devices, allows doctors to access information about a patient's case history, including medications, surgical procedures and referrals. Salar now is trying to apply a similar network to nursing information, physician notes and hospital alerts, Hopkins said.

"All with the goal of improving efficiency among our 18 medical facilities," he said.

Salar's work now is drawing the interest of medical officials at Duke University, the University of Maryland and even Columbia-based MedStar Health (http://www.medstarhealth.org). The profitable company expects revenues of about $870,000 this year, compared with revenues of $250,000 last year, Johnson said.

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2002 American City Business Journals Inc.

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