Medtech And DataCraft Partner To Transform Primary Care Analytics

Medtech Global has announced a strategic partnership with DataCraft Analytics to modernise primary healthcare analytics, improve population health management and enable proactive healthcare.

The companies are partnering to upgrade Medtech’s DrInfo platform, which provides critical analytics to hundreds of general practices, and enhance the DataCraft tool sets used by the majority of the country’s primary health organisations (PHOs).

The collaboration will empower general practices with actionable insights and drive more informed decision-making for PHOs at a regional level.

Data driven healthcare

Medtech’s general manager integration and infrastructure Lawrence Peterson says the new partnership with DataCraft will enhance the capabilities of the widely used DrInfo platform.

DrInfo, which Medtech bought in 2021, boosts workflow efficiency in GP practices by providing data on critical areas such as enrolments, recalls and condition monitoring.

The platform’s audit tool looks for patients who are due for screenings, preventative care, inoculations, or ongoing monitoring, ensuring practices can easily find patients who need to be seen and ensure they optimise available funding for targeted services.

While DrInfo is focused on practice-level data, DataCraft Analytics works with 23 PHOs across New Zealand, providing them with the tools and expertise to perform population-level analytics.

Peterson says the new partnership allows for better data integration between practices and PHOs and the ability to drill down from regional to practice levels.

"This means that insights seen at a regional level can be actioned at the practice level, enabling more precise and effective interventions," he explains.

Actionable insights for primary care

By partnering with DataCraft, Medtech plans to give general practices all the metrics they need in an easy and actionable way.

"The more we can do at the practice level to identify potential health problems early before they become significant, the better,” Peterson explains.

"With the modernised DrInfo platform, practices will be able to quickly identify patients who need follow-up care, manage recalls more efficiently, and ensure that no patient falls through the cracks.

"This helps free up time for practices to focus on other areas, ultimately leading to better patient outcomes.”

DataCraft Analytics managing director Jayden MacRae says the partnership with Medtech marks a significant step forward in integrating advanced data analytics capability with healthcare technology.

"The new features powered by the modernised DrInfo will help general practices deliver more personalised and effective care," he says.

"Practices will have access to real-time data, enabling them to make more informed decisions. This is especially important in managing chronic conditions, where timely interventions can prevent complications and improve patient outcomes."

A population health perspective

MacRae says the collaboration will also help to streamline operations at the PHO level and identify areas of greatest need.

"By partnering with Medtech Global, we are able to bring our expertise in delivering primary care insights to an expanded audience,” he says.

DataCraft Analytics is a trusted partner of PHOs of all sizes across the motu, which are using its Thalamus product, a Power BI dashboard and reporting tool.

Thalamus allows PHOs to ‘slice and dice’ data at a regional level, providing insights that drive population health initiatives.

"For PHOs, there will be a whole lot of spin-offs in terms of further developing some of the tool sets we have.”

MacRae adds that anything that is good for the general practice, ultimately also benefits the Primary Health Organisation.

"Our collaboration aims to bring a unified experience for general practice, both from the PHO level and the practice operating level,” he says.

“Practices will perform better on some of the PHO metrics as a byproduct of being able to operate in a more efficient way.”

Streamlined administrative processes

One of the key synergies between Medtech and DataCraft is the ability to provide business metrics to improve the efficiency of general practices. By streamlining administrative processes, they reduce the burden on practice staff.

"Administrative tasks can be time-consuming and often take time away from patient care," Peterson notes.

"By automating data entry and recall processes, the modernised DrInfo platform allows staff to focus more on direct patient care, improving overall practice efficiency.

"From a financial perspective, it is about helping practices identify funding opportunities for extended patient care," he explains.

"Clinically, it is about augmenting what they already get from their PHO, focusing on important areas that may not be national priorities, but are critical for their patients."

MacRae explains that the data PHOs are interested in is not always the same as what a practice wants to see and understand and modernising DrInfo will involve close collaboration with general practices to understand their needs.

"We are revamping it and modernising it to provide better intelligence and seamless integration between analytics and practice management," he says.

"Medtech has good insights into what practices are getting out of DrInfo, so it is about working with practices to enable effective changes."

Future innovation

Looking ahead, both companies are excited about the future prospects of their partnership.

"This is just the beginning," says MacRae.

"The synergy between DataCraft Analytics' experience in data and analytics and Medtech Global's healthcare solutions is poised to bring about a transformative impact to general practice."

Peterson says that as the healthcare landscape continues to evolve, so will Medtech’s solutions.

“Our goal is to stay ahead of the curve and provide practices with the most advanced and effective tools available," he says.

“This collaboration sets a new standard for proactive and data-driven healthcare, ultimately benefiting patients, practices, and the wider healthcare system.”

Republished with the permission of HiNZ. 

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