New technology to encourage Chinese 'medical tourists' to Australia

CANBERRA -- Australia could soon become the number one destination for Chinese "medical tourists" after an Australian start-up company joined forces with a Chinese medical service provider.

Coyiu, a start-up company backed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) has on Wednesday entered a Memorandum of Agreement with SunWo Medical Management, a Chinese company which provides medical tourism services to Chinese citizens.

Under the agreement, Coyiu will use its audio-video platform to perform digital delivery of medical consultations to prospective Chinese patients, who wish to get better quality medical treatment from outside of Asia.

Australian doctors are considered some of the best in the world, with a number of leading specialists in health sectors such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory diseases and diabetes.

SunWo, which had been using online video conferencing software like Skype to connect patients with doctors, found Coyiu's revolutionary platform able to deliver better audio-video quality, while also giving patients and doctors to live-share medical data and imaging during consultations.

SunWo's Chief Operating Officer, Ben Chan, said the platform would result in many more medical tourists coming to Australia, as they would have a more comprehensive idea of their treatment.

Coviu Project Director, Dr Silvia Pfeiffer, said the platform "usurps traditionally cumbersome video-conferencing systems" through the use of "multi-party, feature-rich video capability".

"It supports the effortless sharing of data-hungry information such as high-definition medical imagery," Pfeiffer said on Wednesday.

"Here we have a Chinese company looking to Australian innovation to help grow its business in an area where two key services industries - tourism and healthcare - intersect," said CSIRO's Adrian Turner.