Earlier this year, Blackberry acquired a minority stake in NantHealth, a cloud-based healthcare IT company whose technology is currently used in more than 250 hospitals.
Blackberry's interest in NantHealth, which was founded by medical entrepreneur Patrick Soon-Shiong, the richest doctor in the world, stems from the fact that it sees the healthcare niche as an edge, given the current focus on patients' privacy and the company's vast network that enables it to manage to secure data on mobile devices.
"NantHealth is a proven innovator in developing leading platforms that allow medical professionals to share information and deliver care efficiently," BlackBerry CEO John Chen said. "BlackBerry's capabilities align closely with NantHealth's and this investment represents the type of forward-looking opportunities that are vital to our future."
Now the two companies have come up with a new app that will allow doctors to check on a cancer patient's genes using a Blackberry phone, a collaboration that made the most of both the two companies' technological capabilities.
On Sunday, Blackberry and NantHealth launched a secure cancer genome browser, which will provide healthcare service providers with the ability to access their patient's genetic data from any location using their BlackBerry Passport smartphone.
The cancer genome browser equips oncologists with a mobile tool that will allow them to quickly and accurately identify the appropriate treatments for a cancer patient. Doctors currently have to wait for weeks for the results of biopsy and the long wait may prompt them to prescribe a particular treatment before the test results become available. Soon-Shiong said that the genome browser will enable doctors to view and analyze the test results as soon as they become available.
"Our partnership with BlackBerry has really been able to create a scalable super-computer in the palm of the hands of the doctor," Soon-Shiong said.
Blackberry launched the Passport smartphone in September and has gotten orders of more than 200,000 two days after its launch. The device, which has the size of a physical passport, is wider than other mobile phones and is capable of handling large amounts of data. It was in essence designed to fit the needs of the physicians as its wide and square-shaped screen allows doctors to better view X-rays, scans and documents.
The cancer genome browser is set to be demonstrated at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas and will be available for medical professionals by early next year.
