Telstra Well being is about to completely purchase pharmacy IT options supplier Fred IT Group.
The corporate, which has been holding 50% curiosity in Fred IT since 2013, disclosed in a media launch that it is going to be buying the remaining half of fairness from the Victoria department of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia and Paul Naismith, Fred IT co-founder and CEO.
Upon the shut of the transaction, Naismith will stay CEO, together with the prevailing Fred IT staff. The pharma IT supplier will proceed growing options and providing companies as traditional. Fred IT, by eRx, has been offering the one national electronic prescription delivery service in Australia since final yr.
THE LARGER TREND
Telstra Well being has been making acquisitions and securing partnerships over the previous few years to determine itself as a world digital well being participant.
In 2021 alone, it signed offers to accumulate observe administration software program supplier MedicalDirector and Adelaide-based well being tech supplier PowerHealth.
Early this yr, Telstra Well being sold its messaging and eReferrals business to HealthLink to zero in on its related well being portfolio. In the meantime, it just lately partnered with Smile Digital Health from Canada to convey the latter’s FHIR interoperability answer to Australia and New Zealand.
The corporate has additionally made key govt appointments lately to help with its expansion actions. In 2022, it onboarded then NSW Well being secretary Elizabeth Koff and former Cerner official Dr Monica Trujillo to function managing director and chief well being officer, respectively. Farhoud Salimi, who was eHealth NSW’s govt director of service supply, was recruited final yr to grow to be its CTO. Dr Janice Tan, a common practitioner, was appointed as medical director of the corporate early this yr.
ON THE RECORD
“The acquisition presents alternatives for the long-term progress of Telstra Well being in Australia, in addition to creating alternatives for the enterprise in leveraging our collective capabilities, experience, and expertise as we establish additional synergies to digitally join well being care,” stated managing director Elizabeth Koff in a press release.
“Pharmacy stands as a cornerstone inside Australia’s healthcare trade, serving as a main touchpoint for numerous Australians. With Fred IT turning into wholly owned by the Telstra Well being Group, pharmacists are poised to extra seamlessly combine into the digital well being panorama of the well being and aged care sectors, empowered by an expanded scope of observe,” Fred IT CEO Paul Naismith additionally commented on the acquisition.
