Thin Client

SAN JOSE, Calif. – August 6, 2009 - Wyse Technology, the global leader in thin computing and client virtualization, today announced an innovative implementation at Kool Smiles. Kool Smiles is a rapidly-growing company whose mission is to bring quality dental services to underserved communities throughout the United States. Since opening its first office in 2002 in Atlanta, GA, the network has demonstrated substantial growth. Kool Smiles is now currently operating in 15 states and serving thousands of patients daily.

From Kool Smiles' inception, the success of the organization depended on using technology to ensure excellent care and drive down the cost of service. The company adopted an innovative approach that leverages electronic health records, standardized processes, and cost-effective, low-maintenance computer hardware to enhance staff productivity and reduce capital costs.

"Our goal is nothing less than to solve the oral health care crisis in the United States," according to Mark Blomquist, CTO of Kool Smiles. "In order to do that, we knew we'd need to hold down the expense of supporting our IT infrastructure and with Wyse Technology we struck gold. Thin clients have helped us optimize the productivity of our staff and saved us huge sums we'd otherwise have had to spend on hardware, software, and PC support. Wyse also helped us to start small and scale our systems to match our rapid growth without incurring major expense or requiring painful transitions."

Kool Smiles' leadership team had a vision that went far beyond building one or two successful practices. They sought to design an organization that could scale to provide dental services to underserved communities across the U.S., and began by defining the qualities they would need from their technical infrastructure: reliability, security, scalability, and low total cost of ownership (TCO).

"Kool Smiles' success makes the company an inspiration for other organizations that are seeking to adopt Electronic Health Records (EHRs)," according to Maryam Alexandrian, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Channels at Wyse Technology. "With its superior virtual client infrastructure, as well as workflow, and records management practices, Kool Smiles employees are able to do more in less time, making it possible and cost-effective for the dentists to provide care for families. Every day, thousands of children and adults receive dental care previously unavailable to them through Kool Smiles' local network providers."

At Kool Smiles' class-one data center in Atlanta, applications are delivered to approximately 2,100 Wyse thin clients at offices across the country. Wyse Device Manager management software helps IT staff manage device policy, configuration, and assets in real time, as well as provide remote imaging, optimization, and administration delegation.

Each examining room has a Wyse thin client with dual LCD monitors running Microsoft Windows XP Embedded. Doctors and hygienists use these more powerful devices so that they can run two applications on a split screen, simultaneously viewing X-ray records and medical information including dental charts. The system helps them chart patient care, file treatment plans, and manage authorizations.

"Every office is laid out the same way, and every type of device works in exactly the same way," added Blomquist. "Our providers can readily move between locations, substituting for staff that is on vacation or sick. This helps maximize the number of patients we can serve in a day. It also scales extremely well, as our IT demands are akin to opening up a small hospital every week"

Kool Smiles must comply with HIPAA requirements to protect all private health care information, so its systems implement several layers of security. The company uses a carrier-class virtual private network to move data around and between its offices via a secure data stream. Because data does not reside on the thin clients, even if a thin-client device was stolen, patient confidentiality would not be affected.

"For a company that's been implementing Electronic Health Records since 2002, we feel that we are great example of how EHRs can benefit consumers, businesses, and regulators," added Blomquist.

Electronic Health Records enable clinical leadership to review patient charts for monitoring and training. A live second opinion is also possible. With consistent, high-resolution monitors, doctors can review x rays in tandem with a peer anywhere in the country in real time. Kool Smiles must also respond to regulators and auditors who want to check dental records and treatment plans to ensure quality of care and financial accountability. With all records in electronic form, staff can simply provide system access to regulators and let them view the data instead of spending time pulling up files to answer regulators' questions.

"Our cost savings with the virtual clients from Wyse has been substantial," continued Blomquist. "We've saved close to $500,000 yearly by reducing the amount of IT staff required to support our business; we've cut our electricity usage by more than 50% throughout the organization; our new device provisioning costs are half of what PCs would require; and we anticipate an annual savings of $1.26 million by reducing maintenance costs. All of this and the virtual clients will last much longer than PCs."

For more information on Kool Smile's use of Wyse Technology, download the complete case study at: http://www.wyse.com/solutions/healthcare/

About Wyse Technology
Wyse Technology is the global leader in thin computing-based virtualization software and hardware solutions. Wyse and its strategic partners, including, Citrix®, IBM®, Microsoft®, Novell®, VMware®, and others deliver the innovative hardware, infrastructure software, and services that formulate the benefits of cloud computing, virtualization and Green IT. These thin computing solutions allow consumers, public and private enterprises to access the application information they need, but with better security, manageability, and at a much lower total cost of ownership than a PC. Wyse is headquartered in San Jose, California, with offices worldwide.

For more information, visit the Wyse website at http://www.wyse.com or call 1-800-GET-WYSE

About Kool Smiles
Founded in 2002, Kool Smiles is a network of local dental offices dedicated to expanding access to quality dental care for children and families in underserved communities. Kool Smiles provides preventative care, diagnostic imaging and a full range of restorative care supported with electronic health records. Kool Smiles offices, many of which are newly constructed, are designed to facilitate communications between our patients and doctors in a relaxed atmosphere. In addition to accepting most insurance plans, Kool Smiles is proud to offer services to families covered by Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP). Kool Smiles also provides oral health education programs through partnerships with community schools and organizations. To find a local Kool Smiles dentist, please visit www.koolsmilespc.com.