BlackBerry unveils plans for bacteria-free smartphone device

BlackBerry ($BBRY) has been working hard to expand its presence in healthcare since losing its share of the smartphone market, scouting out opportunities to diversify its offerings as it makes a name for itself in the industry. Now, the company is taking its healthcare aspirations one step forward, planning to design a bacteria-free smartphone device geared toward hospitals.

As Bloomberg reports, the company is teaming up with ThoughtWire and Cisco Systems to provide a portable messaging and alert system to healthcare professionals at an Ontario, Canada-based Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital unit. BlackBerry is not revealing any financial details, but the company will pony up software and devices as part of the deal.

The technology could have far-reaching benefits at hospitals, where the transfer of infections and bacteria between patients is "a huge issue," Dr. Aviv Gladman, chief medical information officer at Mackenzie Health, told the news outlet. Medical equipment in patient rooms including phones can carry bacteria through the hospital, Gladman said. And even though doctors and nurses are supposed to wipe their phone with alcohol when going in and out of a patients' room, this doesn't always happen, he added.

Blackberry CEO John Chen

With BlackBerry's device, "healthcare workers have to be worried about one less thing to wipe down," CEO John Chen told Bloomberg. The Waterloo, Ontario-based company is not developing its clean phone yet, but the device could help BlackBerry take a deeper dive into med tech as it struggles to keep up with competitors such as Apple ($AAPL).

This is not the first time BlackBerry has explored a smartphone device for the healthcare industry. In 2014, the company said it would join forces with California health IT startup NantHealth to develop a phone with healthcare capabilities. In December, the companies said they would launch a smartphone clinical genome browser, the first in a series of initiatives aimed at the industry, BlackBerry said at the time.

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