The future of US healthcare transcript

DAVID BRAILER: 

Well the first thing everyone's going to see because of our health reform efforts are many, many more people in the United States having health insurance. But following along behind that, all that health insurance money is going to flow into more demand. So, things that will include more primary care doctors, more specialists, more sites of care, more hospital beds, more specialty beds, more intensive care beds, more surgical capacity.

We're increasing the output of our industry by at least 30 per cent over the next two decades. So anybody that can help do that, and do it cost effectively, will have an enormous opportunity for change.

GUY SCALZI: 

The US healthcare market is looking for solutions, and there are a lot of - I wouldn't try to find the one revolutionary idea that's going to change the whole market, but look at niches, and places where they can have an impact in a smaller part of the market. Rather than trying to change the entire US healthcare market, which even President Obama's having trouble doing, so...

DAVID BRAILER: 

Oh, I think New Zealand's ahead of the curve in a lot of ways, I think for a New Zealand company to navigate through that healthcare market. Because it's highly integrated, very patient focused, and able to really deal with things that we haven't dealt with yet, they're well equipped to anticipate our problems.

But also the electronic record companies there have been doing for a long period of time what we're trying to do. So I think there's a real opportunity for New Zealand companies in the United States.

DAVE TINKLER: 

Emendo is a Christchurch-based software company that produces a product called CapPlan. CapPlan's a capacity planning software tool that works in the hospital environment. So what it's all about is aligning demand and resources - forecasting demand, and aligning resources to that demand.

The real benefits are numerous for hospitals, but the key ones that most of them go for are cost savings, revenue maximisation, and really getting their workforce optimisation sorted.

Our key customers are the target market of hospitals with over 100 beds. So in the US alone there are over 33,000 of those. So we're aiming for a percentage of that market.

PETER VANDERBEKE: 

Simtics is a company that produced a unique educational environment for training healthcare professionals. It's made up of four main parts; text, video, 3-D anatomy, and a unique part about it, and something that nobody else has done in the world, is it has an integrated simulator for you to practice, practice and practice the skill. And it will record everything you do, so you've got a log book of your training.

ROSEMARY SHARPIN: 

The US market is absolutely begging for a rapid method to control, or know about the presence of bacteria, because there are 76 million cases of food poisoning every year in the USA.

Food and water contamination costs every American $10,000 a year, and the B2P web-based bacteria tracking system can seriously address the $2 trillion cost of food poisoning in the US.

CLAIRE EELES: 

The Focus on Health challenge is a New Zealand Government initiative to really support some new health companies to commercialise their products in the US. The challenge started out as a competition, so we had well over a hundred applicants; New Zealand research companies, health organisations,  different teams of entrepreneurs that put forward ideas.

JOHN ROSS: 

A big part of the challenge is helping us towards our goal for the next 12 months by giving some structure, some rapid introductions to some organisations and people in this country that otherwise would have been more difficult to make contact with.

ROSEMARY SHARPIN: 

I've had the opportunity to have guidance, professional guidance, on all sorts of areas of presentation and business process which I was not aware of before.

JAY SRINI:

My experience as a judge has been fascinating, with this group of very innovative companies. But equally fascinating has been their growth, and their evolution in terms of their business pitches, as they became attuned to the US market and its needs. And seeing the development of it has been quite phenomenal.