Ten years ago Smile Reminder saw an opportunity to offer text message appointment reminders to physician practices that were losing upwards of $200,000 a year because of missed appointments. Some of those practices had no-show rates of up to 20 percent, according to the company. During the past decade, Smile Reminder has served 20 million patients, including some as far away as Dubai and Australia.

"We actually created this market of patient communication messaging," Smile Reminder President Jim Higgins told the Deseret News. "We built a new industry that is a multibillion-dollar industry."

Smile Reminder has since expanded its offerings to include email communications between patients and providers. The company's service cost $299 a month after an initial startup fee of $399, which the company can refund after a two-month trial (if the practice decides not to continue).

Smile Reminder, which has 60 employees, currently serves some 10,000 doctors and sends messages out to about 20 million patients a month, according to the report in Deseret News.

Be sure to read the report from Deseret News for more