Telstra Health to pick up MedicalDirector for AU$350m
Telstra Health has entered an acquisition deal, valued at AU$350 million, with medical practice management software firm MedicalDirector.
MedicalDirector is a cloud-based software provider owned by Affinity Equity Partners. Telstra Health claims the company currently supports approximately 23,000 medical practitioners and is used to deliver over 80 million consults a year through its solutions, including electronic health records, patient and practice management, billing, scheduling, and care coordination.
The Telstra subsidiary, which has previously come under fire for its troubled Australian cervical and bowel cancer screening registers project, said the acquisition would support the company's long-term growth strategy in the health and aged care sectors.
"Patient care journeys move back and forth across home, clinics, hospitals, aged-care, and pharmacies. This acquisition helps realise our vision to connect and coordinate across the continuum of care, enabling smoother experiences for those who need it and provide it," Telstra Health managing director Mary Foley said.
"Digital solutions support operational efficiency and effectiveness and help clinicians and other care providers solve some of the complex problems they face in the delivery of care.
"We will significantly increase investment in MedicalDirector to provide medical practitioners with the best digital solutions, across desktop and cloud, to support the future delivery of primary health care."
On a call with media, Foley explained some specific investment areas the company will look at include innovations around desktop capabilities and additional cloud-based products.
"We've got a number of strong ideas … we will have the opportunity to sit down with a great team [at MedicalDirector] and work through the detail and get the get their input to exactly where we're targeting," she said.
The transaction is expected to be completed in Q1 FY22.
This latest acquisition follows Telstra Health's announcement last month that it would be acquiring a majority stake in global healthcare software provider PowerHealth. The transaction for that deal is expected to close by the end of Q2FY22.
The healthcare arm of the telco giant was launched in 2014. At the time, then-CEO David Thodey said the business was about connecting healthcare professionals with patients across Australia.
"Healthcare at its core is about connectivity. It is about how you can get better information flows going between doctor, GP, specialist, the pharmacist," he said at the time.
"[But] it's more than just connectivity. It is about how you allow the information to flow through that. We've taken a very long-term view on it, and we're excited about the possibilities with partnering with healthcare providers and the community."
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