Health tech startup Consultmed raises $1.2 million to axe the fax

Innovative health tech startup Consultmed is shaking up the antiquated system of paper and faxed referrals in Australia, has secured a seven-figure investment boost to support its next phase of growth.

Designed by clinicians for clinicians, the platform allows secure exchange of healthcare information between providers and streamlines digital referrals, consent, clinical triage, and remote expert opinion.

Australian early-stage VC Investible has led the $1.2 million investment in Consultmed.

The equity investment will give Consultmed the capital backing to expand its digital platform across hospitals and healthcare networks in Australia.

Finding a better way

Launched in 2019, the growth of Consultmed has been driven by company founder Dr Vikram Palit, a paediatrician and senior lecturer in health management at UNSW.

The idea behind Consultmed came from Dr Palit’s frustrations working as a junior doctor, where his clinical duties were continuously interrupted by time-consuming paper referrals, pagers, and faxes.

He recognised early that at a time when there are such acute pressures on GPs and the hospital system, hours of clinician and admin work spent processing paper referrals meant less time actually seeing patients.

“Dr Palit’s deep experience in Australian healthcare and the facilitation of electronic health record rollouts in the UK demonstrate a truly unique connection to the space,” said Joanna Ng, Investment Manager at Investible.

“By improving specialist efficiencies, Consultmed is already bringing huge benefits to Australia’s healthcare system. We look forward to supporting the team as they scale.”

Industry validation

On the back of the successful round, Dr Palit said the participation of industry professionals marked an important validation for the service Consultmed is bringing to market.

“A significant proportion of this investment round has come from senior medical staff who use Consultmed daily and see the positive change that it makes to their workflows and for their patients,” Palit said.

“It’s been amazing to see so many GPs and specialists get behind the product and participate in this round.”

“And with VC backing and the considerable experience of the Investible team, we have the capital and expertise to effectively scale-up over the next two years.”

Axe the fax

In Australia, over 80 per cent of medical referrals to specialists are still sent by fax. The company’s slogan #axethefax appealed immediately to Dr Matthew Lam, a Sydney-based GP and user of Consultmed.

“Most of my patients are surprised when I hand them a paper referral or tell them that I am going to fax it to the local hospital,” Lam said.

“As a GP, I can use Consultmed to send a referral digitally, and be comforted in the knowledge that the specialist on the other side has actually received it, in real-time. This also reduces medical errors and risk to patient safety … paper referrals are misplaced or lost all the time.”

Lam also said the end-to-end interface improves two-way communication practices for healthcare professionals.

“I can also ask for specialist advice and guidance through the app. This is really helpful because I can better manage my patients locally, and save them a trip to the hospital.”

Positioned for growth

The round closure caps off a successful 12 months for Consultmed, which included victory in Startup Daily’s Pitch Perfect competition in partnership with Microsoft Australia in 2021.

The company has also secured innovation and seed funding from Government, and successfully launched its referral platform across Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network – the largest paediatric healthcare service in Australia.

The Consultmed platform is currently live at six hospital sites in NSW and is used daily to send and receive referrals by hundreds of GPs, specialists, allied healthcare workers and administrators.

As evidence of its early market traction, the company has already built out a national footprint for its operations team with staff in Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne and Newcastle.

The Consultmed team are backed by an impressive advisory board comprised of senior healthcare leaders and digital health experts, including medical informatics specialist and ophthalmologist, Dr Ashley Kras.

For Kras, Consultmed is a leading example of the kind of fast-moving tech solutions that are ideally suited to building improved health outcomes in the wake of the global pandemic.

“The pandemic has accelerated the opportunities for digital health technologies to transform the way clinicians work,” Kras said.

“Consultmed’s referral platform is a simple and future-proofed solution to a long-standing problem in healthcare.

“What sets it apart is that it combines a user-friendly interface with secure messaging technology and integration to other clinical systems. And what it does particularly well is that it improves both the patient and the provider experience.”

With $1.2m in new funding, Palit and the team will be focused on scaling the platform across more hospital networks in 2022, where talks with multiple providers are already ongoing.

It makes for an exciting year ahead, as the platform consolidates its first-mover advantage with product-market fit as one of the leading new tech solutions in Australia’s healthcare market.

Image supplied:  Consultmed  founder, Dr Vikram Palit and Stephanie Hodgson, Head of Product
@doctor_vik
Twitter handle: @Consultmed_Au