​Orion Health on board as Govt invests in $37.8 million IT research partnership

Ian McCrae - CEO, Orion Health

The Government will invest $14 million over seven years in a $37.8 million public-private research partnership to promote precision-driven healthcare, with initial partners including Orion Health and the Waitemata District Health Board.

“The partnership will work on developing and conducting ground-breaking health data analysis and optimisation technologies for health assessment and management,” says Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce.

“Health research is a strength for New Zealand. This investment in long term, higher risk research looks to commercialise New Zealand health innovations for global export, capitalising on the international growth in health IT and data analytics.

“New methods for data mining, integration and multivariate analysis will be developed, which will be applicable across the health sector and in other fields such as manufacturing and IT.”

Joyce says the partnership will receive $14 million in funding through the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s research partnerships programme, along with around $23.8 million in industry and end-user funding.

Additional commercial, healthcare provider and research partners are expected to join the partnership in the coming months.

The partnerships programme seeks to increase the competitiveness of New Zealand industries by supporting high-quality, relevant mission-led research with initial partners including software developer Orion Health and the Waitemata District Health Board, in collaboration with the University of Auckland.

“New Zealand is becoming a world leader in health IT,” adds Health Minister Jonathan Coleman.

“This research will help to deliver more proactive and timely personalised care as well as help to reduce health system costs.

“This research programme is an opportunity to bring different expertise and research together to enhance New Zealand’s collaborative knowledge base so we can ultimately deliver better health outcomes for New Zealanders.

“We want to see more patient-centred healthcare as well as utilising technology to empower patients to self-manage their own health. Using complex data sources and predictive modelling has a role to play in helping to enable more precise and timely healthcare.”