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Intel Inside ... Health Care? You Should Care.

When one vein starts to whither, you gotta tap around for a healthier one. Intel's latest initiative aims to bring its PC expertise into the hospital, with lots of friends in tow.

About two years ago, Intel executives launched a new section of its business called Intel Digital Health. Former CEO Craig Barrett, then-No. 2 guy Paul Otellini, and senior exec Louis Burns talked about the 800-pound gorilla's new venture and how Intel would be helping hospitals out of the proverbial bloodletting and leech stage and into the 21st century. Lots of Intel chips helping people save lives. Not a bad proposition. Baby boomers are aging. Science could use the boost.

On Tuesday, Otellini (now CEO) and Burns (Intel health czar) helped usher in the chipmaking company's first foray into mobile computing space with a Tablet PC called the C5, which is designed especially for the overworked and underappreciated nurse.

Oh, sure, Intel has been touting its Xeon and Pentium hardware for some time as a panacea for the health care industry. But the latest plan makes better sense. The price to make PCs has dropped very low and the commoditization of components is making it harder and harder to show quarter after quarter of growth -- just ask Dell.

Intel surely realized that it needs to be at the forefront of a multi-trillion year business that is the worldwide health care industry.

Enter Motion Computing out of Austin, which helped with the C5's final design. It looks like a white Etch A Sketch toy with a handle and a bar code reader. But this little ditty has a Core Solo in its gut and supports up to a 60-Gbyte hard drive, an RFID reader, Bluetooth-enabled stethoscope, and a 2-megapixel camera.

Not everyone will have access to the designs, at least in the first round. The $2,100 price tag seemed to be prohibitive to some analysts. But the Tablet PC tote is designed to replace rolling carts with laptops on them -- disaffectionately known as COWS (computers on wheels).

But let's dissect the news a bit. Is the story about the chips, per se? Not really. Perhaps it's more about the partnerships that Intel can bring to the table. Motion is a great partner, but Intel has more friends worldwide than you can shake a stick at.

So what do you think? Is this the C5 the next logical step for technology? None of the components are new -- just the way hospitals are using it. Or is the real story that we will see more innovation because companies see an opportunity to ride on Intel's coattails?

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