I have posted on several occasions about the seeming lack of national industrial development strategy for the Canadian eHealth industry. Hence, I was pleased to read about a healthcare vendor taking on this cause, a vendor that has been very successful in the Canadian market. Where is this vendor based? Toronto? Ottawa? Vancouver? Nope, Auckland, New Zealand!
Ian McCrae, CEO of New Zealand-based Orion Health, is quoted in a New Zealand Herald article
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/compute/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501832&objectid=10634956&pnum=0
as saying “We have a chance of being a hotbed of health innovation. It’s something we should actually take advantage of because there some things we can’t do. We can’t build cars, we can’t build spaceships, there’s lots we can’t do. But this is one thing we can absolutely world class at.” Hmmm … seems that we could say the same thing about Canada. Canadian healthcare IT vendors, what do you think? What is ITAC Health’s position on this matter? Orion has clearly demonstrated how success in the “home” market can be leverage for success in global markets.
Mike
eHealth Musings 