Orion Health reports growth – implements first Digital Front Door

NEWS

Orion Health’s revenue grew to $150 million over the past financial year, up 12 percent, as the Kiwi company celebrates 30 years in business.

It has also gone live with the first implementation of its Digital Front Door technology in a Canadian province.

A statement from Orion Health says more than 80 percent of revenue came from offshore over the past financial year, with significant multi-year wins in Saudi Arabia and Canada.

Chris Hobson, global chief medical officer, told eHealthNews the Canadian project is the first implementation of Orion’s Digital Front Door.

The new service went live on March 31, 2022 and provides everyone in the province with patient centric access to their electronic health record, as well as an afterhours triage call or online chat service. Integrations with large EHR providers allows a transcript of the discussion to be sent to the doctor or health service they are referred to.

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An online symptom checker makes use of the Ada artificial intelligence tool to improve the patient experience and provides patients with advice on what to do next, with the aim of reducing the number of people presenting at the Emergency Department unnecessarily.

Patients can use a website or app to access the Digital Front Door and it covers a population of 15 million. Hobson says over the first few days there were 45,000 impressions on the website every day.

Orion Health delisted from the New Zealand Stock Exchange in 2019.

Orion Health chief executive Ian McCrae says the business has transformed from a publicly-listed juggernaut “into a business of start-ups”.

“Looking at the financial year ahead we can already plot an upward trajectory and expect to achieve north of $170m revenue,” he says.

After thirty years of leadership and following treatment for a brain tumour, McCrae is adjusting his role to deliver the company’s people plan and leadership transition as the last phase of his five-year rebuild strategy.

Lucy Porter has joined Orion at a governance level and for special projects and Craig White and Grant Anthony have joined as Orion Health’s Chief Data Officer and Chief Information Security Officer, respectively.

McCrae says the company is retaining its employees by introducing new programmes that encourage staff to reconnect and explore the world, while remaining employed.

“As a result of these programmes, the company has mostly avoided the ‘great resignation’ with low staff turnover of 16% and an average tenure of more than 5 years,” he says.

“We’ve amassed a track record of breakthrough innovation – from being the first New Zealand company to get the internet, right through to revolutionising healthcare for end users via our Digital Front Door technology – and we’re backing this up with consistent profitability.”


Picture: Lucy Porter, director, and founder Ian McCrae celebrate Orion’s 30th birthday 

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