Blackberry Makes Healthcare Move, Invests in NantHealth

Blackberry, a well-known smartphone Waterloo, Ontario company based in Canada, is making a move into healthcare, with an investment into NantHealth.

NantHealth, a Culver City, Calif.-based company, has a cloud-based clinical decision platforms for providers. Its accountable care organization (ACO) and patient-centered medical home (PCMH) products integrate care management systems, patient portals, margin management systems, and clinical operating systems. Its technology has gotten the eyes of other investors in the past, with the company getting a $31 million in 2013, and the company claims is installed at 250 hospitals.

Blackberry is interested in NantHealth to develop privacy systems for mobile, the companies said. It plans on establishing a real-time operating system for mission-critical medical diagnostic and monitoring devices in hospitals and homecare environments. NantHealth says the mobile phone maker is valuable in terms of making its platform more widely available through a secure mobile device.

“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. Providing actionable information at the time of need will significantly improve the efficiency of healthcare and, more importantly, the efficacy of care for the patient,” Soon-Shiong, NantHealth's founder, said in a statement.

The price of the investment is unclear, although Reuters says it buys Blackberry a minority stake in the company.