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The revolution taking place in healthcare, or more specifically in the radiology market, is providing manic growth for Christchurch-based software developer Comrad Medical Systems, leaving founder Andrew Scott feeling he is constantly on a giant rollercoaster.
By the end of this year, Comrad will achieve the growth target it set out to achieve in the next two to three years. "Over the last two years, revenues have trebled in size. It is hard to keep up with the momentum," says Scott. From a one-man show, Comrad now employs about 30 people, 10 of them developers and the rest a combination of technical support staff and administration personnel.
For commercial reasons, Scott declined to provide revenue figures. That's not surprising, since he is in a business inhabited by giants such as GE Healthcare, Siemens and Phillips.
Comrad has the lion's share of New Zealand's private radiology market, at 95 per cent. In the public health system, Comrad's share is at 30-40 per cent, Scott reckons.
The company provides the software that helps manage all the information that gets passed around within the healthcare system when patients go for their MRIs, x-rays or CT scans. Comrad's flagship product is Comrad 2, which recently had a boost in technology after being integrated with leading picture archiving and communications systems and voice recognition systems. The company also recently launched its own WebComrad product, which provides referring clinicians with secure internet access to patient radiology information.
Despite the big-name competition, Scott is unfazed. To begin with, he is an owner-operator, which makes decision-making more nimble. As well, he is a software sleuth in business garb. This University of Canterbury graduate in software development speaks the language of nerds as well as understanding the arcane world of the radiology market - one that is being transformed by the digitisation that has followed the internet revolution.
Scott has witnessed first-hand how much the world has morphed. Twenty years ago, the computing world was made up of large IBM mainframes. Thanks to the commercialisation of desktop computing and the internet, radiology has moved on from using black films read with lightboxes, to digital images that can be called up all at once, complete with the patient's history, the specialist's report and the interpretation of the scans, on multiple screens, and moved across servers at ease.
Comrad had its roots in a company that went into receivership around 1986-87. At that stage, Scott was the developer for software aimed at radiology applications. Despite the receivership, he was retained to finish the project and the prototype was delivered to the clients.
Scott now owns half of the company and the other half is owned by the Savage Group, an investment company belonging to the Savage family. Two years ago, seven-figure funding from Savage provided serious money to help Comrad undertake new development of the software.
As far as Scott is concerned, the New Zealand and Australian markets are still fertile ground for growth as the healthcare system looks to move patient and data management online.
"We believe we have a very efficient workflow model, one that is efficient for people to use and meets the needs of radiologists," Scott says.
The workflow that Comrad helps manage includes registrations, medical reports being generated, electronic distribution of information, statistics, billing, dictation and report-making, payment systems and claims. The end result of an efficient workflow is better cost for the healthcare system. The future envisioned is one seamless flow - all online - from GP referral, to radiologists, to patient clinical reporting and lodging claims with the ACC.
Two years ago, Tauranga's Bay Radiology upgraded its radiology imaging system using Comrad's product. This has helped reduce reporting time for images to within the same day, down from 24 to 48 hours for its branches outside the main office. Steve Harris, manager at Bay Radiology, says: "The system has enabled us to improve turnaround time [from the time images are done to the reporting]. We think it is an exceptional product, enabling us to gain significant efficiencies. The technology, besides its time-saving aspect, has also enabled us to employ a more dispersed workforce."
Four years ago, confident the company had a product to strut, Comrad tested a pilot site in Victoria, through Bendigo Radiology.
And two years ago, Comrad made its first major breakthrough in the Australian market through I-MED, which calls itself the largest diagnostic imaging network in Australia.
"For us it was our first big deal, giving us credibility," says Scott. "It is a huge system, with 300 workstations and 15 practices. We have had to convince them our product would be able to do the job. We are rolling out the product."
In 2005, when Comrad had the big infusion of capital from the Savage Group, a board was set up, a new strategy put in place and Mark Bowman, formerly from Navman, was roped in as non-executive chairman.
Scott says: "The investors brought their expertise to the business process. With the planned expansion of our business, this gave me great confidence to get bigger."
This July, the company appointed a general manager, Jeff Wilkinson, to help manage future expansion.
"Our product is definitely ahead of the competition. The ground-up redevelopment has put us in a position to grow," Scott says, adding that Comrad will continue to sharpen its product by improving the electronic interface with other links in the healthcare chain.
He says software development is a high-stress environment. With the growth Comrad has seen, particularly with the project in Australia, developers don't necessarily enjoy the stress that comes with the change. But then there are mitigating factors, Scott says, especially when the development results in successful products.
Comrad
* Formed 20 years ago.
* Privately owned.
* Provides software for the radiology market.
* Now claims 95 per cent of NZ's private radiology market and 30-40 per cent of the public system.
* Has also expanded into Australia.
