IQ Health Tech -- a division of South African-based IQ Business Group -- and Optum will form a new company called HealthIT to develop e-commerce transaction processing systems for the Australian health sector.
HealthIT is in the process of developing the technology for transferring pathology results online between doctors and laboratories. It will supply digital solutions that re-engineer the processes faster and securely -- and possibly cheaper.
IQ Business Group's managing director Patrick Crooks says they are specifically looking at creating an environment with very high levels of security for information flow and speeding up transaction cycle times.
-The ability to feed information between doctors and laboratories quickly is extremely critical in emergency situations."
-The emphasis is that the patients will be able to get feedback from blood tests really quickly," Crooks said.
The company claims it is nearing the end of the development stage of the technology and is hoping to turn over AU$6.5 million in the first two years of market adoption.
Taking privacy into consideration, Crooks claims the technology will be based on the same encryption software used by financial services.
-Our aim is to create interoperable solutions which can interact with existing systems. Our solutions can be easily understood and used by all involved, even the extremely time poor, such as doctors," Optum executive director Rob King said.
HealthIT is planning to explore other avenues for online healthcare solutions in Australia.
-The market for pragmatic e-health solutions is set to boom in Australia," Crooks said.
