This appeared last week:
Award-winning SA business Clevertar in administration after talks with creditor ‘broke down’
Valerina
Changarathil, The Advertiser
March 28,
2019 4:00pm
A
Flinders University-backed award-winning SA business that received
international recognition — including from Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak — and
multiple grants has called in administrators after discussions with a major
creditor broke down.
Clevertar,
which
was developing revolutionary digital avatars for digital healthcare services,
is now in voluntary administration with Pitcher Partners’ Michael Basedow.
In
documents filed with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, Mr
Basedow said he had been in discussions with Clevertar since December, after he
was approached by Clevertar’s solicitors.
Mr
Basedow revealed he was informed on March 25 that talks with a major creditor
of Clevertar “had broken down” and that the directors would be proceeding with
the appointment of an administrator.
A
spin-out of Flinders Universtity, Clevertar was co-founded by Tania Newhouse
and Martin Leurssen in 2012.
Current
company records show it has other multiple shareholders, including Flinders
Partners Pty Ltd, the commercialisation arm of the university.
Mark
Pitcher is the managing director of the business chaired by Jim Birch, who also
chairs the Federal Government’s Australian Digital Health Agency, which is
charged with rolling out the My Health Record initiative.
Prominent
Australian Julian Burton is a director of the business with Ms Newhouse being
chief executive and Mr Luerssen appointed chief technology officer.
International
giant Konica Minolta invested $600,000 into Clevertar in 2016 and the business
also received a $420,000 Australian commercialisation grant, which has
underpinned its Pennsylvania, US, trial.
More here:
The backstory to the company is
here:
Avatars from Adelaide-based Clevertar on way as health coaches
Brad Crouch,
Medical Reporter, Sunday Mail (SA)
MEET Michael —
your personal avatar ready to gently coach you to better mental health.
The
digital health coach is the first male to join Anna and Laura in the world of
virtual health care being pioneered by Adelaide artificial intelligence firm
Clevertar, a Flinders University spin-off.
It
is a world where you download an app then, in the privacy of your own home and
at a time of your choosing, get coached on your tablet or smartphone to cope
with health issues.
Laura
was used in a closed trial of diabetes management, while Anna has been working
to help consumers deal with depression and anxiety issues.
Clevertar
decided to expand with Michael to give consumers a wider choice of avatar to
make them feel comfortable when talking about delicate issues.
Michael
and Anna are now starring in an Australian-first trial targeting more than one
million people across Sydney’s west.
Through
the app they are combining proven, low-intensity cognitive behaviour therapy
programs — developed by mental health clinicians and researchers at Flinders
Psychiatry — with 24-hours-a-day free coaching and education services. This
comes in addition to face-to-face counselling.
Lots more here:
Just what is going on when we have
the Chair of The ADHA (Jim Birch) embroiled in the collapse and administration of a Digital
Health start-up he chairs – presumably while
the opt-out process was being conducted, which should have been a pretty major
focus.
As we all know the ADHA Board is a
model for disengagement and opaqueness with digital health participants having
not even published and meeting ‘minutes’ since August last year. (checked
31/3/2019) It is hard to know why exactly
they exist given the way the ADHA seems to be run purely to execute policy
devised by the executive and not the Board.
I really do think there is a
conflict of interest here that should mean the Chairman does one or other job,
not both. Jim Birch should be out of one or the other given the mess of the ADHA run opt-out I would suggest it - Note very recently rumours he is leaving are running big time BTW!
What do others think?
David.
Ethics has no place in digital health, so if we park that for a moment and not mention the hyenas circling AI in health. Has Jim Birch done anything wrong or illegal?
ReplyDeleteI don’t know but I am sure he has declared all his interests as would be required. I don’t believe Mr Birch on paper is a bad person and he has helped many navigate the political sty that in ‘digital’ health.
The board is ultimately accountable I guess but let’s be fair and let the ADHA cEO, CIO and National CIO take the limelight for the GovHR mess. Which I might add will cost the Coalition enough votes to hurt.
Of coarse if it turns out this company Mr Birch chaired won any work from ADHA or the Department in a less than fair and open way then all bets are off and its the gunners daughter for him.
I think you misunderstand the role of a chairman - it is not a full time role and most chairmen would have multiple roles as Jim Birch obviously does. His only crime is to have chosen the CEO but the minister for health would have done the choosing i imagine given how political digital health has become which is a shame.
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