Walk into almost any GP clinic in Australia and the software the doctor is using to pull up your records, write a referral, or prescribe medication is likely to be one of two products: Best Practice or MedicalDirector. Between them, these two platforms run Australian primary care.

MedicalDirector: now owned by Telstra Health: is in the middle of a significant transformation from clinical records system to AI-powered healthcare platform. What it becomes will affect not just GPs, but the entire ecosystem of allied health practices, specialists, and health businesses that interact with primary care.

What MedicalDirector Is

MedicalDirector is a clinical information system: software that manages patient records, appointment scheduling, prescriptions, referrals, pathology results, and billing for GP practices. It’s been in Australian clinics since 1992 and has one of the largest repositories of de-identified primary care data in the country.

In 2019, Telstra Health. Telstra’s healthcare technology division: acquired MedicalDirector as part of a broader strategy to build a connected Australian health technology ecosystem. Telstra Health also owns or has invested in a range of other health platforms including Fred IT (pharmacy software), Argus (secure clinical messaging), and various hospital information systems.

The AI Roadmap

Under Telstra Health’s ownership, MedicalDirector has been developing AI capabilities across several areas:

Clinical decision support: AI-powered alerts that surface relevant clinical guidelines, potential drug interactions, or preventive care reminders at the point of consultation: without the GP needing to search.
Automated clinical documentation: AI transcription and summarisation tools that reduce the time GPs spend on note-taking during and after consultations. The AI listens to the consultation and drafts a structured clinical note for the GP to review and approve.
Population health analytics: Tools that help practices identify patient cohorts at risk: patients overdue for chronic disease reviews, patients who haven’t had a recommended screening: and automate recall communications.
Pathology and imaging integration: AI-assisted triage of incoming results, flagging abnormal values and prioritising results that require urgent follow-up.

Why Allied Health Businesses Should Pay Attention

For allied health practices: physiotherapists, psychologists, occupational therapists, podiatrists: the evolution of MedicalDirector matters in several ways:

Referral patterns: As MedicalDirector gets smarter about identifying patients who need allied health services, the volume and quality of GP referrals should improve. A GP whose software automatically flags that a patient with chronic low back pain is overdue for a physiotherapy review is more likely to generate that referral.
Clinical messaging: Telstra Health’s ownership of both MedicalDirector and Argus (clinical messaging) is driving integration between GP records and allied health practice management systems. Progress notes and outcome measures flowing seamlessly between Cliniko and MedicalDirector is increasingly possible.
Data standards: Telstra Health’s push toward interoperability means that allied health practices on compatible systems will increasingly benefit from richer patient history data at the point of care.

🦅 The practical implication: If you run an allied health practice, the software your referring GPs use is getting smarter: and more likely to proactively identify patients who need your services. Make sure your practice is easy to refer to: online booking, clear referral information on your website, and prompt acknowledgement of referrals all matter more as GP referral systems become more automated.

The Data Question

MedicalDirector holds one of the most sensitive datasets in Australia: the health records of millions of Australians. The privacy and security of that data is a critical obligation, and Telstra Health has invested significantly in security infrastructure and compliance frameworks.

The use of de-identified clinical data for AI model training raises legitimate questions about consent and data governance: questions the Australian health sector is actively working through, with input from the OAIC, the Australian Digital Health Agency, and professional bodies. The outcomes will shape how clinical AI develops in Australia over the next decade.

MedicalDirector is part of Telstra Health. Learn more at medicaldirector.com.