Smile Reminder brings medical texts, e-mails to 20 million patients

LEHI — Picture showing your spouse an electronic copy of an X-ray of your son's broken arm while making a decision on surgery, or texting questions about a diabetes diagnosis directly to your doctor at your leisure, without confronting appointment and insurance hassles.

Next, consider that the technological service is provided to you at no extra cost, but as an added value for dental and medical providers, who also use it for appointment reminders and newsletters.

The idea might seem like a high-tech fantasy, but the software and services available from Lehi-based Smile Reminder have been going strong for almost a decade.

Company President Jim Higgins said no companies have reached the success and prominence of Smile Reminder, which was ahead of the curve back in 2000, when texting was barely getting started in the U.S.

"We actually created this marketing of patient communication messaging," he said. "We built a new industry that is a multibillion-dollar industry."

Smile Reminder started out sending text messages to patients, reminding them of appointments. The goal was to save money for practices losing up to $200,000 a year on no-show rates above 20 percent.

The technology service eventually extended to e-mail and then quick but secure doctor-patient communications. The service costs $299 per month per practice after a start-up fee of $399, fully refundable after a two-month trial. In one case study, dropped appointments were reduced by 80 percent when providers used Smile Reminder services.

The private company has received major recognition for ingenuity and entrepreneurship in its first 10 years and last year won awards as the 32nd fastest-growing software company in the U.S.

Smile Reminder has expanded to serve health care providers as far away as Australia and Dubai and recently inked a deal with worldwide medical giant GE Healthcare. Smile Reminder serves about 10,000 doctors and sends messages to about 20 million patients a month, all with just 60 employees, Higgins said.

"We're going from a good, growing company to big overnight success," he said.

Young Family Dental in Orem was among the first clients of Smile Reminder and has remained a strong proponent throughout the years.

"We've been very happy with what they've been able to do as far as fill that niche in making our communications more streamlined," said Spencer Goo, practice administrator for the business. "We feel like it is added value to our business by streamlining that communication with patients, and that's really their purpose."

Higgins hopes to permanently change the experience of medicine by improving the doctor-patient relationship, which he believes is one of the top two or three in terms of importance to a person's quality of life.

"It's really our game to lose," he said.

e-mail: rpalmer@desnews.com