Telstra today further bolstered its portfolio of electronic health offerings with the acquisition of Medibank telehealth business Anywhere Healthcare.
Telstra has been actively pushing into the ehealth space since teaming up with HCF and Healthways to offer telemonitoring of health devices in July last year, ahead of formally launching its standalone health division Telstra Health the following October.
It has also previously partnered with Swiss provider Medgate to deliver ‘ReadyCare’, a telephone-based GP consultation service.
The addition of the Anywhere Healthcare video-based business assets round out the telco's ehealth product suite, Telstra’s retail boss Gordon Ballantyne said in a statement.
“Anywhere Healthcare provides a patient’s regular GP the option of referring them to a specialist for a video conference, providing more convenient access to specialist care that can otherwise be difficult to reach because of distance or in circumstances such as for patients in nursing homes,” he said.
Since it debuted in 2013, Anywhere Healthcare has attracted a user base of 1600 clinician referrers, who can direct their patients to consult with any one of the service’s 26 specialists via the video conferencing service.
Telstra has indicated its plans to expand the service by bringing more specialist clinicians on board, and will target patients in rural and remote areas, as well as those with difficulty getting around, such as patients in nursing homes.
Anywhere Healthcare will formally transfer to Telstra in May 2015.
