Remote access brings Diagnostics closer

THE name of medical imaging services company Global Diagnostics is not the only thing that has changed about the business since it opened its doors almost 15 years ago.

Johnny Walker started Imaging the South, which was renamed Global Diagnostics two weeks ago, after witnessing the difficulties of diagnosing medical conditions remotely first hand, practicing as a radiologist in remote indigenous communities in the Pilbara.

Dr Walker developed the Bunbury-based business by forming public private partnerships with hospitals in the South West region, with hospitals and Imaging the South sharing ownership of the machinery.

When Dr Walker moved to the UK in 2002 to grow the business internationally, Angela Whittington came on board as chief executive. Since then, the business has expanded to the point where it needed a name that reflected the breadth of its services.

“We had outgrown the name Imaging the South already by going to the Pilbara and the Wheatbelt. We were already imaging the east and the north and then going to Queensland,” said Ms Whittington, who won a WA Business News 40under40 Award in 2007 for her work with Imaging the South.

When Irish company Centric Health bought the business in 2004, Kalgoorlie was the only town outside of the South West that Imaging the South was servicing.

Broadening the company’s coverage has been a a prime focus for Ms Wittington. Global Diagnostics now operates in the Pilbara (out of Karratha and Port Hedland) – an area it moved into in 2004 – as well as the Goldfields, the Wheatbelt and next week will start operations in Queensland before opening a metro location in Perth in early 2011.

There also are plans to expand into regional Victoria and New South Wales in the next two years.

Ms Whittington told WA Business News the regions remained a focus of Global Diagnostics, which has grown its revenue from $10 million in 2002 to $21 million this year.

“We have gone from a business that had grown too quickly – it needed some consolidation and to find its feet, it was struggling financially – to a company with a $21 million turnover that has industry average EBITs and is seen as a leader in technology,” Ms Whittington said.

Developing technology has been an important part of the growth strategy for Global Diagnostics, which recently won an Industry and Export award for developing technology that allows emergency department doctors to order x-rays electronically.

“Even though we are regional, we still try to stay at the forefront of technology and innovation,” Ms Whittington said.

While the 2007 40under40 Award was recognition for Ms Whittington’s work at Imaging the South (Global Diagnostics), it was not the first time her work had been so recognised.

As co-owner with her husband of plum export orchard Sugar Plum Farm, Ms Whittington won a 40under40 Award in 2002.

She said the awards had helped her to garner broader recognition and acted as a springboard for other honours.

“Both times, in 2002 I was awarded the Curtin University prize and in 2007 I got the UWA business school prize; and then in 2008 I did Telstra Business Woman of the Year and I won the category for women who run other people’s businesses,” she said.

“Those two awards set me on my way into getting into Imaging the South and then being CEO, building it up and winning it (40under40) again in 2007 was fantastic for the Telstra awards.”