September marks an exciting milestone for Webtools as it sees 25 general practice sites connected on the Centrik platform in just six months since launching its consumer health application. Implementation work has also extended into community-based care, as the team continue to deliver on their vision of a purpose-built and fully patient-centric technology platform that offers healthcare service providers a modern alternative for engaging with consumers.

After rolling out to six Canterbury general practices in March as the white label Better Health Outcomes app, Centrik has quickly scaled to sites across Aotearoa with growth gaining huge momentum in recent weeks. With the current pipeline of trial sites, at least six additional general practices will be connected on the platform each month.

General practice sites with current production connections are located from Auckland to Invercargill and range from multi-location practices with more that 20,000 registered patients, to smaller rural practices, as well as newly established general practice sites. Amongst the sites are two Waitaha Primary Health practices who have signed onto Centrik to trial the Well consumer health app, following a partnership between Waitaha and Webtools.

Sites have leveraged Centrik’s standards-based technology to easily connect to the platform with minimal effort, garnering an incredibly positive response from those on the front line in general practice, as well as consumers. In the context of a stretched primary care setting, there is an even greater requirement for modern and frictionless technology that allows consumers to connect with their primary care provider to access their health information and also health services.

Developed in collaboration with general practice, Centrik addresses pain points of consumers and providers, delivering a seamless end-to-end experience. The platform provides an efficient and streamlined process to handle appointments, pre-appointment triage, repeat prescriptions, patient access to health data and lab results, messaging, virtual consultations, and payments.

The extension into community-based care is an exciting step forward for the Centrik platform. Traditionally, patient portals have enabled a one-to-one relationship between a patient and their general practice. Centrik changes the game by enabling patients to interact with multiple service providers across the health sector through a single application, and not dependant on those providers all using the same PMS. This means patients can now securely share their International Patient Summary (IPS) record with several healthcare providers – such as their pharmacy or home-based support team – and see when their record has been accessed, or turn off access at any time.

Centrik currently connects to primary care facilities via Medtech’s ALEX® platform using FHIR. Adhering to FHIR integrations and standards means Centrik provides an interoperable and integrated solution for health providers to share patient data quickly and securely, aligning to the objectives of Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand’s Hira programme. Centrik can easily integrate with any health service provider that adheres to FHIR standards, placing it at the forefront of health tech and ready to improve the way health information is accessed and shared, both nationally and internationally.

Centrik has been developed by Ōtautahi Christchurch-based company Webtools. Learn more about the Centrik platform here.