Some of the most important conversations we have take place in the offices of our medical providers. Despite the incredible advances in healthcare and fighting disease with new technologies, those conversations often lack substance, perspective, and empathy. Part of the problem is it's hard to get a handle on the details of those conversations because of the discreet nature and mandated privacy issues associated with medical communications.

A Montgomery County startup called Verilogue set out to improve doctor-patient communication in 2006 with a medical research project that analyzed the exam- and waiting-room exchanges across the country. By the middle of 2010, Verilogue had developed the country's most comprehensive medical communications database by logging 50,000 conversations.

The conversations, and the analytical reports attached to them, have proved valuable beyond hospitals and doctor's offices. Pharmaceutical companies also stand to gain inside informtaion on the patients they might someday treat. Verilogue has partnered with more than 40 pharmaceutical firms and research organizations, leading to record growth for Verilogue. Sales grew in 2009 by 34 percent and the company grew from its two founders in 2006 to 38 employees.

Verilogue's patent-pending, point-of-practice database and technology system earned the company the 2007 Technology Startup Company from the Eastern Technology Council and more than $200,000 in funding from Ben Franklin Technology Partners the same year. The company's recent grown should add about 35 new workers to the operation, which covers 14 physician specialties and 50 therapeutic categories and produces monthly reports on its conversation studies.