The startups: with all the activity in health care it, the mile-high city has emerged as a hotbed for like-minded startups.

• Position: MEDICAL TECH

PRESM

Denver-based Presm is "a next-generation patient portal," says co-founder Kevin Fredrick. "We integrate with existing clinical software-medical records, scheduling systems-and serve as connective tissue between people who need informal ion.

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Fredrick says the three-employee Presm is gunning for federal certification before launching in "the near future" to benefit from the coming boom in spending thanks to ACA in to modernize health care IT.

The irony to me is parts of health care are very sophisticated when it comes to technology-imaging systems, for example-but when it comes to basic uses of technology, health care is way behind. The fax is still the most popular communication method for a lot of doctors. Companies like Presm are trying to change that.

CIRRUSMD

Denver-based CirrusMD is bringing health communication into the 21st century with HIPAA-compliant text arid video-chat technology. The model calls for doctors to resell it to patients for $40 a month and it can be a huge time-saver for both patient and provider.

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"It pays for itself," says CEO Andrew Altorfer. "It captures a substantial amount of margin back into the system and also gives the doctor an incentive."

Technology has the potential to cure medical inefficiency and misguided allocation of resources, he adds. "One of the biggest costs boils down to inefficiencies, whether it's paper inefficiencies or handwritten notes. Who wants faxes at this point in time? Statistics show doctors spend roughly half of their time with administrative tasks and they are an expensive commodity. Their highest and best use is getting in front of patients...