WiSpots wants to help.

The Apex company aims to revolutionize doctors' offices, with devices that let patients wirelessly surf the Web while they wait.

In most physicians' offices, "patients are forced to sit and wait with nothing to do, staring at the wall," said WiSpots CEO Kevin Flannery. But with WiSpots' WiPad, patients and visitors can check e-mail, sports scores and stock prices, all for free.

Each WiSpots station holds five computers with touchpad screens. When the computers are not in use, their screensavers act like small electronic billboards, flashing a new ad every 12 seconds. WiPads' Web interfaces incorporate banner ads and links to advertisers' Web pages. At the top of each stand is a flat-panel monitor showing nothing but ads.

To execute its growth plan, WiSpots has to sign up advertisers. To attract advertisers, the company must convince doctors' offices to pay a $500 set-up fee and $299 monthly maintenance fee per station, at a time when declining reimbursement rates mean that medical practices are watching every dollar.

Despite the hurdles, a number of doctors have expressed interest in the concept, Flannery said.

The company began a rollout of its technology Monday at Triangle Orthopaedic Associates in Durham. When Triangle Orthopaedic CEO Charles Wilson peeked into the waiting room mid-morning, visitors were using four of the five computers.

"Any time you give the patient something to do while they have downtime, I think there's going to be a lot of positive comments on it," said George Sheasley, the practice's chief financial officer. "I think the potential is pretty good."

Ultimately, Triangle Orthopaedic Associates hopes to integrate the computers into its patient check-in and satisfaction survey processes, he said.

Sheasley and Wilson are members of WiSpots' advisory board.

Retooling the business

WiSpots began in 2002 with an effort to sell subscriptions for Wi-Fi, a popular type of wireless Internet service. Flannery, an engineer and entrepreneur, hoped to blanket businesses across the region with Wi-Fi connections, then recruit customers who would pay to get access to the service.

It didn't work. Most people feel entitled to free public Internet service, said WiSpots' president, Drew Gaworski.

So WiSpots retooled.

Its leaders hope that the latest evolution will click with consumers -- and succeed in generating revenue to support the business' operations.

"We learned our lesson," Flannery said.

WiSpots' new concept is part of a growing trend. As television and print advertisements have waned in importance, companies have tried to reach consumers through nontraditional media such as movie trailers and mobile billboards.

One advertiser so far

WiSpots' devices could help educate patients, Gaworski said. The company encourages advertisers to provide information about their products and about health issues. A link to WiSpots' first -- and so far, only -- advertiser, Sanfaustino, offers information about osteoporosis. The company bottles and sells calcium-rich water from Italy.

WiSpots is working with nine potential advertisers. Once the company has filled 80 percent of its advertising capacity, WiSpots plans to share a small percentage of its ad revenue with the physicians who host its systems.

The company will be successful if it can install 50 systems in 2007, Gaworski said. That would generate more than $1 million in revenue for the five-employee company. However, if all goes according to plan, Flannery can envision taking nearly 260 systems live by the end of the year.

Individual investors, including Gaworski and Flannery, have funded the company with about $1 million over the past four years.

If the pilot project's first 90 days are successful and more advertisers sign on, the company that owns Sanfaustino is expected to invest in WiSpots, Flannery said.