Canadian EMR vendor WELL Health Technologies has agreed to buyNew Zealand-founded practice management system vendor Intrahealth for $C19.25million ($NZ21.25m). 

Intrahealth provides its Profile PMS to approximately 15,000 clinicians, mainly general practices and medical specialists in New Zealand, Australia and Canada as well as the New Zealand Defence Force and the Australian Antarctic Division.

It also has hospital patient administration bed and wait list management and medication management capabilities, along with a virtual care platform and a patient and provider app called Aero.

The company was founded in Auckland by physicians Mark Matthews and Andrew Hall but has been headquartered in Vancouver since 2005. It generates about $NZ10m in revenue per year.

WELL Health, which is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, markets the OSCAR Pro electronic medical record (EMR) platform across Canada, including to its chain of primary care clinics in British Columbia, and says it has 2200 clinics under management.

WELL Health says the purchase of Intrahealth will be a transformational acquisition for the group as it will transition the business from solely providing OSCAR EMR services to being a provider of multiple EMR product offerings in global markets.

The company plans to integrate Intrahealth onto its apps.health marketplace in the coming months, allowing third-party app developers to have their digital health applications available on both the OSCAR Pro and Intrahealth platforms.

WELL CEO Hamed Shahbazi said the proposed acquisition would expand WELL into a multi-product EMR company that can service small primary healthcare clinics up to large hospitals and health authorities.

“We are very excited about the prospect of initially expanding our global footprint into New Zealand and Australia through this acquisition and pursuing further global expansion.”

Intrahealth is anticipated to continue to operate as a stand-alone business within the WELL EMR Group and be operated by Dr Matthews, its current CEO. Profile will be marketed and sold alongside WELL's OSCAR Pro product.

Dr Matthews said he was pleased with the prospect of joining WELL Health, as it would allow the company to continue to serve users and enhance the product offering while being a part of a larger shared services platform.

“We believe there are many synergies and cross selling opportunities with WELL's broader product offerings being made available to all Intrahealth customers,” Dr Matthews said.

He said Intrahealth in NZ and Australia will continues as it is with the same staff and phone numbers.

WELL has agreed to pay a purchase price of approximately $C19,250,000 to complete the transaction, which is subject to a number of conditions and is expected to be completed in early Q2-2021.

Written by Kate McDonald on 12 March 2021

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