Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry today announced an investment in Californica-based healthcare IT firm NantHealth.
"BlackBerry's capabilities align closely with NantHealth's and this investment represents the type of forward-looking opportunities that are vital to our future. This investment and planned collaboration aligns with the reliability, security and versatility of BlackBerry's end-to-end solutions," BlackBerry CEO and Executive Chair John Chen said in a statement
Both the companies intend to collaborate on the development of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of US and other government privacy certified, integrated clinical systems that transform the delivery of medical care.
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NantHealth provides cloud computing based IT solution for healthcare related to payers, providers and patients through real-time connectivity.
Loss making BlackBerry is looking to diversify its portfolio specially in IT segment. The company has suffered huge loss from its handset business and opened up its famous mobile application BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) for rivals too.
The company said its net loss was USD 423 million for the fourth quarter ended March 1, 2014 compared to USD 98 million profit it reported in the same period a year ago.
Revenue of the company dipped 64 per cent to USD 976 million in the reported period from USD 2.7 billion in the same quarter a year ago.
The Candian smartphone pioneer is looking to open up more revenue streams through its software products. Recently the company announced some features to monetise BBM.
"BlackBerry's expertise is incredibly valuable to NantHealth as we expand our platform and make it available for wider deployment through a secure mobile device," NantHealth's founder Patrick Soon-Shiong said
The NantHealth platform is installed at approximately 250 hospitals, and connects more than 16,000 medical devices collecting more than 3 billion vital signs annually.
Soon-Shiong said that the future of the healthcare industry requires the ability to share information securely and quickly, whether device-to-device or doctor-to-doctor anywhere and at any time.
"The potential to integrate BlackBerry's secure mobile communications, along with the company's QNX embedded technology, will put the power of a supercomputer in the palm of the caregiver's hand," he said.
