Safer software nets Kiwi firm big bucks

Auckland health technology firm SaferSleep is dreaming of a US$60 million (NZ$88m) payday after breaking into the lucrative British market.

The company is also eyeing up other Commonwealth countries as markets for its technology, which is used to safely administer anaesthesia to patients.

Chief executive Sue Wright says anaesthetists using SaferSleep's system follow a procedure to prepare drugs, use a special barcode label to identify them and swipe the barcode before administering them.

The system's software checks the correct drug is being used and records exactly what has been given to a patient.

Anaesthetists typically have their own procedures for preparing and administering drugs but "because they're doing that every single day of their lives, inevitably an error occurs", Ms Wright says.

Research shows an anaesthetist working full-time will make a medication error such as giving the wrong drug or wrong dosage once every two months, she says.

"Our system reduces errors by nearly 40 per cent."

Three public hospitals and two private hospitals in Auckland use the system, but the New Zealand market is small-fry compared with the opportunities in Britain, Ms Wright says.

Two British hospitals have recently trialled the system and will continue to use it, and Britain's National Health Service will recommend anaesthetists adopt a similar barcoding system.

"The market is very large in Britain particularly there's 60 million people there. It's a very exciting market for us to enter, not only because of its size, but because practice of anaesthesia there is the same as in New Zealand.

"We can satisfy those customers by producing exactly the same product. The market in Britain is worth about US$60 million. In New Zealand it's worth about US$2m."

SaferSleep plans to move into other Commonwealth countries and ultimately the United States.

"In the US they have a market-driven health system ... We'd need to redesign [the system] so it can be used to bill every item."

The company, which has five staff in New Zealand and two in Britain, is yet to make a profit but expects revenue growth to hit 20 per cent next year.

- © Fairfax NZ News