Modern healthcare is about more than medicine. Doctors and other caregivers have to be mindful of everything from treatment options, current lab results and radiation exposure to how much all of this is costing the hospital, clinic and patient.

Wouldn’t it be nice if somebody designed a product that makes it easier for healthcare providers to keep track of all those things?

Birmingham startup IllumiCare believes it has.

Its Smart Ribbon innovation combines clinical and financial intelligence within an existing electronic medical record system. It’s non-intrusive in that it hovers over a patient’s record, providing real-time cost and risk data but then disappears when it’s not being used.

IllumiCare has partnered with a number of hospitals nationally and provides a product that benefits patients and physicians.

Alabama’s IllumiCare helps doctors count the costs of care, both economic and human from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.

IllumiCare came about after co-founder Mukul Mehra met with a patient looking for a second opinion with regard to her cancer prognosis. After days of looking through records of how much radiation the patient had been exposed to, Mehra was able to see that her exposure was equivalent to being about 1,000 yards from the atomic bomb dropping in Hiroshima during World War II.

As a result, IllumiCare was born, concentrating on creating a more efficient way to give patients and clinicians the proper information needed to provide the best treatment options.

From there, IllumiCare’s abilities and ambitions have grown.

“We hope to change healthcare,” said G.T. LaBorde, CEO of IllumiCare. “That really is what would enable our system to be more efficient and hopefully afford healthcare for many more people because we are doing it so much more efficiently.”

IllumiCare’s Smart Ribbon provides crucial information to doctors in an unobtrusive, easy-to-read electronic strip. (Contributed)

The Economic Development Partnership of Alabama (EDPA) likes that sort of vision.

EDPA’s Alabama Launchpad program named IllumiCare its Corporate Innovator of the Year for a small company in its recently announced 2016 Alabama Innovation Awards. EDPA uses these awards to highlight and recognize the innovative strategies of individuals and companies helping to boost Alabama’s economy and provide new job opportunities.

“The Alabama Innovation Awards are the perfect opportunity to recognize companies, businesses and individuals who have transformed innovative ideas into a product or service that meets a need and delivers proven value,” said Steve Spencer, president of EDPA.

EDPA will host its sixth annual Alabama Innovation and Entrepreneurship conference on Tuesday, Aug. 30, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex. There, IllumiCare and other award recipients will be honored. For more information on the conference, visit http://alabamalaunchpad.com/awards/.