Online healthcare appointment startup HealthEngine has appointed Pat O’Sullivan as Chairman. Mr. O’Sullivan is also currently non executive director of Carsales.com.au, iSelect, and Little Company of Mary Healthcare. He is also an active fundraiser for the charity Dreams2Live4.
Dreams2 Live4 is a not for profit that encourages patients of The Prince of Wales Hospital who are living with metastatic cancer to realise their dreams. The charity came to national prominence in 2007 through Andrew Denton’s Documentary “Can I Write the Ending” and featured the life of Dreams2Live4 founder Annie Robinson.
Until July 2012 Mr. O’Sullivan was Chief operating Officer/ Finance Director of PBL Media and Nine Entertainment and was the Chairman of NineMSN. Previous to this he was the Chief Financial Officer of Optus.
Other board directors include:
- Rohan Lund – Group Chief Operating Officer of Seven West Media Group (Previous CEO of Yahoo 7 & Chairman of IAB Australia)
- Matthew Koertge – Managing Director Telstra Ventures
- Adam Yap – General Partner Future Health Ventures & Chief Operating Officer of HealthEngine
- Dr Marcus Tan – Chief Executive Officer and Medical Director of HealthEngine
- Rachel White – Company Secretary and Chief Financial Officer of HealthEngine (Previously Finance Director for Hotelclub)\
O’Sullivan said he was excited to be involved with HealthEngine, who has quickly since launch been able to claim market leadership in the online healthcare appointment booking space. “Building a two sided marketplace is never easy and takes time but HealthEngine has been able to demonstrate significant site traffic of now some 500,000 visitors a month. Currently over 10,000 consumers book their healthcare appointments online via HealthEngine each month,” he said.
The site focuses on GP’s and Dentist’s bookings and is also gaining traction with other allied health practitioners such as Physiotherapists and Chiropractors. “HealthEngine plans to grow and expand the transactional model that currently allows Healthcare Practitioners to list their open appointments via the site. The business model is sound, with practitioners only paying for the service based on performance.” O’Sullivan said.
In a vote of confidence for the startup Telstra and Seven West Media announced in May 2013 a $10.4m investment in the HealthEngine.
CEO of HealthEngine Dr. Marcus Tan said, “We are delighted to have Pat on board, his experience as the previous Chairman of NineMSN gives him a solid understanding of having two large corporate stakeholders at the board table. Pat’s extensive business background spanning the internet, media, technology and more recently health sectors uniquely qualifies him to add value to HealthEngine, particularly as we now scale the business.”
“HealthEngine is also all about being part of the community and Pat’s personal commitment to fundraising for the cancer charity Dream2Live4 further demonstrated a values fit with HealthEngine,” Dr. Tan said.
HealthEngine recently reached a significant milestone of 1 million published appointments and will this weekend (September 8) begin a national consumer TV advertising campaign, called “The Waiting Room” aimed at making HealthEngine a household name for managing your health.
