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We’re creating a better health deal for people.

We have two reasons for being.

To deliver to the health system what’s next in smartest virtual health and smartest hands-on care.

To globally explore, feel and design what’s coming after what’s next. 

OUR
SERVICES

Whether it’s practice ownership, IT solutions for best care and best business practice, developing new models of care like Health Care Home or sharing our experience and expertise through our consultancy -

We have the people and the knowledge.

Digital health -
the enabler

Much of what comes next, and what comes after next, is going to leverage off the opportunities offered by technology and the digital space.

Ventures has a skilled team of people who gets the digital space and is constantly exploring how better health outcomes, living well and tech can achieve a better marriage.

To do that the team needs to go everywhere and not be wedded to a single solution. The tool box has many solutions. We have specialists in the following areas.

  • Electronic health – PMS, patient portals, electronic clinical decision support, electronic pathways, shared electronic health records: working with and supporting providers using indici™, MedTech, Orion and many others – from true cloud to hybrid and all that lives in between.
  • Data services – data insights, AI powered exception reporting and electronic clinical decision support will all be part of how patients and providers make decisions around health. Using the latest public cloud services the team ispushing the boundaries in the use of data and leading New Zealand services to a new way of operating.
  • Infrastructure – from a mobile device through to a whole eco-system. The team has experts in helping you make the right call and invest in the most cost effective options. Ventures has now stepped away from the single solution Xcrania and is now able to offer a wide range of alternatives.
  • Cloud – understanding the cloud is critical for the future. Many provider-support vendors are wedded to using and leveraging off prior investments in local systems. Our team has now left the single option behind and has partnerships for many options.
  • Digital communications – newsletter and emails are not always the only means of effective and targeted communication. Our comms team can help you package your story and target just those that want to hear it, in the way they want to hear it.
  • Online market places – how do your services shine beyond all the other options out there and as a consumer how do you find just want you need? Our experts are all about finding the perfect match.

Find out more ›

Health Care Home

Transforming primary care.

The Pinnacle Group designed and developed the Health Care Home model that is now being rolled out nationally. We have many visitors each year looking at what we’ve done to achieve the published outcomes and our learning along the way.

Ventures leads the strategic development of the model – the ‘what’s next’. Our Health Care Home team leads the implementation within the network. We also provide consultancy to other organisations and practices wishing to adopt the model.

Click below to our Health Care Home website for more detail on the model, the team and outcomes.

Find out more ›

Practice ownership

Transforming and sustaining general practice and primary care services through a social enterprise.

How practices and services are owned and managed is changing from the traditional owner-operator model to community trusts and corporates.

Ventures has developed a social enterprise model creating partnerships between communities, patients and providers to create a new sustainable model of ownership. The collective scale means more options for patients and providers, creating regional and national capability with local delivery.

We currently own a number of practices across the North Island. We buy practices for a wide range of reasons and in a wide range of settings. Practice ownership also enables us to develop and prove operating models and new care models that address the current and future challenges of primary care. It is also proving an alternative for GPs wanting to exit but keen to transfer the practice to a clinician owned and governed organisation rather than a corporate body. In this way we retain the right balance between high quality care for patients, engaged providers and financial performance, which is really key and proven around the globe to be the real secret sauce.

Consultancy services

We provide consultancy to a range of clients, nationally and internationally.

Examples include Health Care Home implementation, strategic health service development, developing and writing general practice business plans or sharing our experience of successful health service change.

We also have qualified coaches who can support boards or individuals to develop their culture and leadership styles for transformational change. We like to work with other organisations as it helps us to keep learning too.

Give John or Christine a call if you think we could help, or if you’re looking for ideas to take your business or network forward.

Meet
the
team

Tim Norman

Director of Getting it Done

Tim is a talented project manager, who has recently stepped into operations management for Primary Health Care Ltd. Click on each person to meet the team.

John Macaskill-Smith

CEO and Director of Disruption

John has 20 years' of leading change in primary care and a few more doing other stuff. John took Pinnacle from a small team of 16 people in 2001 to the broader group of companies and innovations that it’s so well known for. Passionate about bridging the gap between technology and outcome, he loves the challenge of improving outcomes by blending the best of what we do with what we could do. And his BBQs on his Big Green Egg are legendary.

Bevan Bayne

Practice Development Geek

With a background of 20 years' successful years in leadership, coaching and business, Bevan brings an eclectic mix of sector experience to the primary health sector (from telecommunications to kiwifruit!). He gets a kick out of helping general practice get fit for the future by changing something today. As well as growing ideas he is also growing our Primary Health Care Ltd and Health Care Home practices. Racing around supporting his kids is his other major project - but he loves it.

Helen Parker

Director of Organised Chaos

With over 35 years' of experience (yes, that long) working in health systems as a nurse, health service manager, primary care academic and other development roles at board level, Helen brings that all together in the Ventures space. She works best with coffee and helping others to think through the art of the possible in health care transformation. When not working she travels and eats.

Kerry Macaskill-Smith

Clinical Director

As well as being in the Ventures team Kerry is a part-time GP in Hamilton. Her background in general practice comes into its own to ensure what we do is clinically safe for the people we’re doing it for and works for providers. Kerry gets involved in all our projects (try and keep her out) but is especially cool as lead for indici™ and our pharmacogenomics project. She is also a pretty good singer, taking to the stage with the Waikato Rivertones.

Will Hughes

Product Evangelist

Will brings (quite) a few years of experience in sales management and general management from across a variety of both 'for profit' and 'for purpose' organisations. Having spent the last decade or so developing commercial products and services for NFP health and disability organisations, Will is now passionate in spreading the good news about how Ventures innovative products are pushing hard to shape a better future in primary health care. The original beach boy, he is still surfing when the weather is warm.

Alex Poor

Health Informatics

Having managed big data sets across the health, education and social sectors, Alex has a real passion for using data for positive change. Having completed an M.Phil on primary care health systems interoperability, Alex can also blend technical detail with the big picture. Outside of work he leads a high-octane lifestyle centred around obscure board games and Linux.

Here’s a taste of the ways we’re working to improve the health sector.

OUR
PROJECTS

Venturesgx
pharmacogenomics

Personalised medicine.

Too much of the health system is based around averages – from clinical trials through to service design. Ventures is focused on personalising healthcare and ensuring that consumers and clinicians have access to tools to ensure that the care offered and the medications used to treat and prevent illness are the best they can be for an individual.

Partnering with a specialist lab and a pharmacogenomic interpretation company, Ventures has brought DNA based PGx to New Zealand. But it doesn’t stop there. PGx results could become lost in the many passive pieces of information held within an individual’s health record, so Ventures is working with indici™ to ensure that your DNA based record lives securely within your health record and is an active tool when any medication is prescribed for you.

Find out more ›

Data informatics

A whole new world of health data.

We’re transforming how our health system accesses and uses data to design, plan and deliver better care.

We’re building a data lake using Amazon Web Services and providing expertise in data management, automation, analysis and insight for a wide range of health information across the Pinnacle group and beyond.

With solid experience in cloud technologies, we have the know-how to solve common data management problems and to quickly turn the data into information for action. We’re already providing cloud-based national data services to a range of external partners, and have demonstrable expertise in security, privacy, data governance and herding cats.

Patient journey
partnerships

Working in partnership with ACC to improve a patient journey to recovery.

The ACC high tech imaging programme (ACC HTI) provides general practitioners with training to assess particular injuries and the ability to order MRI diagnostics appropriately. This provides patients with appropriate early access to MRI diagnostics where previously they could only be obtained via a specialist referral. The aim of the programme is to decrease the existing long waits for specialist consultation by referring only patients that would have maximum benefit from specialist input, versus pain management or active rehabilitation services. The overall objective is to return patients back to maximum functionality sooner.

Ventures also works in partnership with Braemar Hospital, Hamilton Radiology, Lisa Hansen Physiotherapy and ACC to deliver an injury management service known as Waikato Escalated Care Ltd. The service follows on from the success of the ACC HTI implementation, and aims to provide patients with a team of interdisciplinary services to improve the journey back to rehabilitation. We will design and develop the technology enablers to support this service, which will use indici™ as the core patient management system to enhance virtual consultation, and a shared care plan tool to integrate the patient and whanau experience and care journey with all members of the health team.