This morning, IBM announced a $100 million, three-year healthcare initiative, by which IBM will enlist researchers – some of whom helped develop microchips for electronic diagnostic testing – to develop technologies for healthcare providers.

According to an IBM spokesperson, “Improving the quality of healthcare requires more than just digitizing health data – Enabling greater coordination between care providers and transforming data into clinical decision intelligence could improve patient outcomes and help lower costs of health care today.”

That’s exactly where Lantronix fits in the picture – medical device networking and systems to not just deliver data, but to deliver value-added, actionable data, to any device, anywhere, anytime – empowering healthcare providers to make decisions and provide better patient care through data.

The IBM investment is just the tip of the iceberg. We’re seeing increased market activity and inbound inquiries to use our networking technology for connecting medical devices to Health Information Technology Systems (HITs) – primarily to address initiatives for improving healthcare in hospitals and in-home healthcare.  But we’re also seeing something even more exciting – the need for adoption of technology alternatives to accommodate new and evolving business models for the efficient delivery of healthcare services.  These new revenue opportunities for healthcare providers, coupled with the ability to reduce costs and improve efficiencies, are all pointing toward what we’re all hoping for – improved patient care.