Wireless will definitely improve MDeverywhere's business case when approaching some new customers, Pollard says. "At a high level, a number of organizations already view wireless as a key strategic initiative," he points out. "Our being able to use their wireless infrastructure allows us to fit in better."

For new customers that have mature and widespread WLAN implementations, there will be "significant cost savings" because they won't have to buy, configure and install PCs and wired networking infrastructure.

For those customers, and they're mostly larger organizations, Wi-Fi is clearly the technology of choice, but for smaller clinics, Bluetooth may be a more cost-effective wireless solution, Pollard says. For one thing, Bluetooth is a more readily available wireless option in lower-end PDAs such as some of the Palm products.

While more and more cost-effect wireless options are coming -- including tiny Secure Digital (SD) Wi-Fi cards that fit in the latest generation of PDAs -- client hardware is one of the hold-backs for this technology. Some existing customers, for example, have already invested in PDAs that cannot add Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connectivity at all.

For these and other reasons, MDeverywhere expects it will take a few years for wireless to become the rule rather than the exception, even among its existing customer base. Today, a quarter or perhaps a third of those existing customers are seriously considering wireless, Pollard says. For the rest, it will take more time.

Of course, with only 20 client organizations up and running, MDeverywhere's market universe for wired or wireless service remains enormous.