Doctor helps others share data securely

Dr. J. Kipp Lassetter doesn't know when to quit — and that's exactly the trait that has led to the success of his Salt Lake-based company, Medicity.

A former emergency-room physician, Lassetter decided while consulting with companies manufacturing medical record software that their approach to the applications was flawed.

Lassetter saw an opportunity in finding a better way to provide electronic health records that could be shared over the Internet among physicians, and that led to the birth of Medicity.

The fledgling company had a difficult road ahead, competing with billion-dollar providers of hospital systems, many of whom had research and development staffs that dwarfed that of Medicity.

But Lassetter persisted, believing in his vision of medical software that emphasizes flexibility, domain expertise and excellent data-management capability, rather than locking out competition with proprietary software models.

Now, Medicity provides solutions for some of its biggest competitors, and the company's products are being installed at a rate of about 80 physician practices per week, nationwide.

Lassetter's company is regarded as a founding member of a growth market in medical-records products that make it easy to integrate data and share it securely among medical providers.