Company Profile
HealthLink is an electronic communications and integration service that is used by all of the organisations within the health sector to exchange electronic patient information via their computer systems. HealthLink is used by more than 8,000 medical practices across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific region. The company has offices in Auckland, Brisbane and Perth. HealthLink has a growing presence in every Australian State and territory as well as an almost complete coverage of the New Zealand health sector.
Typical uses for HealthLink include:
- Delivery of pathology reports
- Hospital discharge summaries
- Patient referrals
- Specialist letters
- Messages between general practices and chronic care management systems
In New Zealand and some parts of Australia, HealthLink has become the predominant means by which information is exchanged between healthcare providers, nearly completely eradicating paper correspondence.
HealthLink uses sophisticated network management systems to monitor use of electronic messaging and to identify practices that are having difficulties with their day to day communications. All HealthLink services are encrypted and have digital certificates.
HealthLink provides its services to pathology and radiology service providers, hospitals, area health services, district health boards and state health authorities as well as general practices, specialist practices and ancillary healthcare providers. HealthLink may be accessed via the internet or via a secure virtual private network.
During the twelve years since HealthLink was established at the invitation of the New Zealand Government, the company has developed a highly sophisticated integrated communications and security service that is capable of being implemented in almost any healthcare environment.
Figure 1: The Range of HealthLink’s Services
HealthLink’s head office is in Auckland New Zealand and plans to shortly open an Australian head office based in Sydney. The company has staff in Brisbane, Sydney and Perth. HealthLink is currently appointing staff in Melbourne.
HealthLink was established in 1993 as a joint venture between Telecom New Zealand and Orion Health (one of the world’s largest non-US based health IT companies). In 1996 Telecom New Zealand sold its share of the venture to HealthLink staff members. It remains a privately held company.
The New Zealand Ministry of Health’s decision to form public-private partnerships was the reason behind the formation of HealthLink in 1993. Working in partnership with the NZ Ministry of Health, the company became a leading provider of electronic services and since 1998, HealthLink’s services have been used by all of New Zealand’s general practices. In 2000 HealthLink made the decision to enter Australia and has since that time been installed on more than 4,500 computer systems.
HealthLink’s overall goal is to become a world leader in the provision of systems and services that lead the world in paperless healthcare, the company has a five year plan, the first two of which involve completing development of a comprehensive range services for the Australian market and conducting market research into the requirements of similar healthcare environments eg Canada.
HealthLink has gained international recognition as provider of New Zealand’s integrated communications infrastructure and has also been credited in part for the success of The New Zealand Primary Healthcare Strategy which was launched in 2000.
"New Zealand’s status as a global leader in integrated healthcare IT has been confirmed in a landmark ten-country study that named New Zealand as having the second most integrated advanced country in this field after Denmark. What matters is that a unifying organisation is responsible, as well as some kind of Government impetus. ‘Denmark has a non-profit organisation, at arm’s length from Government. New Zealand, on the other hand, operates its healthcare IT project through a wholly private company (HealthLink Limited)."
Denis Protti, Professor of Health Informatics, City University, London and University of Victoria, British Columbia |
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