Whānau Tahi is strengthening its IT play, confirming its acquisition of health IT specialist firm SimplHealth.

Whānau Tahi is a subsidiary of the the Waipareira Trust with growing interests in IT, health and wellbeing, enabling services between health and social providers and patients and their whanau.

SimplHealth is behind the technology powering New Zealand's ePrescription Service.

The acquisition will see the teams, products and services of SimplHealth merged with Whānau Tahi, with immediate effect.

According to Whānau Tahi, the larger company will offer a more comprehensive portfolio of products and services focused on personal, whānau and community centric health and wellbeing by using information and data to drive better health outcomes.

Whānau Tahi managing director Ray Noonan says the acquisition is part of a vision to develop strength in providing improved future health and wellbeing for communities in New Zealand and overseas.

“There's huge opportunity to address the many health and wellbeing challenges we face as a country,” Noonan says.

“This acquisition brings together two likeminded organisations who are both passionate about using technology to collaborate, connect and deliver better social and health outcomes, part of which is enabling people to manage their own wellbeing,” he explains.

“Up until now our focus has been empowering connected care through two integrated services, Whānau Tahi Connected Care and our Navigator platform.

“This will now be enhanced by SimplHealth's considerable expertise in medications intelligence, health services information and payment management to really build our strength,” says Noonan.

Bennett Medary, from SimplHealth echoes Noonan's sentiments.

“As a company we have always been passionate about collaboration to develop and deliver solutions to help people - our motto for many years has been ‘together we can do amazing things',

“This new venture will demonstrate this more than anything else and we are very excited about the possibilities ahead to support people and communities directly,” he says.