eHealthNews.nz: AI & Analytics

McCrae Tech founder draws on personal experience of AI in healthcare

Wednesday, 23 April 2025  

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth 

Ian McCrae, founder of McCrae TechIan McCrae will be drawing on his personal experience using AI in his own cancer journey to deliver AI-driven solutions to the healthcare system under his newly founded company, McCrae Tech.

HEALWELL AI recently completed the acquisition of Orion Health and a strategic divestment has led to the formation of McCrae Tech.

The new company is fully owned by Ian McCrae, who was diagnosed with a stage-four glioblastoma tumour four years ago and is using AI for everything from meal plans to researching the latest brain cancer drugs and treatments.

"My personal journey using AI to fight brain cancer has given me a deep understanding of how this technology can transform healthcare. McCrae Tech will channel this insight into creating AI-driven solutions that deliver tangible benefits to patients and healthcare providers alike,” he says.

McCrae tells eHealthNews the newly formed entity employs around 100 people and oversees three early-stage product startups, each targeting a different aspect of clinical technology and digital health transformation. 

Each product is run independently by a dedicated leadership team, but with shared services such as payroll, marketing, and accounting. 

"McCrae Tech is primarily a holding company which has three startups within it. The theory is startups are the most efficient way of organising a business, so why would you not organise your business that way?"

It inherits key products from Orion Health, including the hospital Electronic Patient Record system already in use across the South Island of New Zealand as the South Island Patient Information Care System (SI PICS), and across sites in Asia.

McCrae says the system offers a mid-market alternative to expensive global electronic health record solutions, delivering the same or better functionality at a much lower cost.

Niru Rajakumar, who was VP Asia-Pacific at Orion Health, has moved across to become chief executive of McCrae Hospitals.

The second product, Orchestral, is a clinical data platform designed to support sophisticated AI-driven queries and workflows and is led by McCrae’s daughter Lucy Porter.

McCrae describes Orchestral as a “super modern cloud-hosted way of getting data from all sorts of data sources including device data, Internet of Things data, genomic data etc.” 

This can serve both large-scale population health management, right down to decision making in an independent GP clinic, and the first customer for the platform will be announced soon, he says.

McCrae says around $20 million has gone into developing the platform which was fully launched in the last three to four months.

The third start-up under McCrae Tech is yet to be announced.

He says that for existing customers of Orion Health and McCrae Tech solutions in New Zealand, the transition to two companies is expected to be seamless. 

“McCrae Tech is now purely focused on innovation R&D so they should expect to see a lot of innovation coming out of McCrae Tech. Customers want good products, they want product innovation and they want to have good support, and I think they should see changes and improvements in all those areas.”

As a 100 percent shareholder in McCrae Tech and a major shareholder in HealWell AI, McCrae says he his commited to both innovation and strong collaboration between the two organisations.

Image: Ian McCrae, founder of McCrae Tech

 
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