555 - The Vision for Patient Engagement. Dan Stinton, Healthengine
Imagine calling your local clinic and never being put on hold again, or managing your whole care team from a single app instead of juggling phone calls and paperwork. That is the promise of digital health platforms like Healthengine, which are reshaping the way Australians engage with the healthcare system. With AI stepping in to cut admin headaches and smarter tools connecting patients to providers, the question is no longer if healthcare will change, but how quickly. And as you will see, the shift is less about replacing people and more about giving them the time to focus on what matters most: actual care.
In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch speaks with Dan Stinton, CEO of Healthengine, about the changing landscape of digital health platforms in Australia. They discuss Dan’s transition from digital media into the health tech sector, Healthengine’s evolution from a healthcare marketplace to a comprehensive patient engagement platform, and the introduction of new technologies like AI-powered receptionists.
Healthcare in the Digital Age: Patient Engagement, AI, and the Power of the Online Marketplace
Digital technology is transforming how Australians access, manage and experience their healthcare. In this episode of Talking HealthTech, the spotlight is on Healthengine, a platform that reflects the changing role of patient engagement tools, online healthcare marketplaces and the growing impact of artificial intelligence in reducing the burden of administration. The discussion dives into the practical challenges of connecting a fragmented system, supporting providers without stepping into clinical care, and the possibilities that lie ahead as healthcare in Australia continues to adapt.
At the heart of the conversation is a simple but powerful question: how can technology make healthcare more human? By improving access, easing pressures on clinics and giving patients greater control over their care, platforms like Healthengine offer a glimpse of a system that is more connected and more responsive to modern needs.
A Shift in Focus: From Digital Media to Healthtech
Breaking into the world of healthtech can take many different paths, and not all of them are traditional. The journey into this space is rarely straightforward. At times, a broader understanding of digital behaviours, media and online connectivity can offer a new way of approaching complex challenges in healthcare. Healthengine’s CEO, Dan Stinton, came into the sector through digital media, where he previously held leadership roles at The Guardian Australia and Seven West Media.
“I’ve always been at the tech side of media,” says Dan, reflecting on his unusual transition to healthcare. “But this was appealing to me. I wanted to get back into tech, and healthcare in particular was really interesting because there’s usually a purpose to it more than just making money.”
Bringing experience from outside the healthcare sector can often lead to unexpected advantages. The value of this diverse background becomes clear in the way Healthengine has developed over the past few years. Dan describes a company influenced by the lessons of online marketplaces and driven by the rising expectations of both patients and providers for smarter, more effective digital tools.
A New Vision for the Healthcare Marketplace
For many Australians, navigating the healthcare system can feel like piecing together a puzzle without all the right pieces. Healthcare in Australia is well known for being complex and often disconnected. Patients find themselves moving between GPs, specialists, dentists, allied health providers and pharmacies, usually relying on a mix of paper forms, phone calls and outdated systems to keep track. Smooth and connected experiences are still the rare exception rather than the norm.
Healthengine started as an online marketplace, connecting patients with practices and streamlining appointment bookings. What began as a simple online booking tool has expanded far beyond that initial purpose. Dan emphasises that, while online bookings remain “a really important part of what we do,” the broader priority is now focused on delivering sophisticated patient engagement capabilities.
“Our focus is making it as efficient and as easy as possible to engage with patients up to an appointment, and to engage with patients post appointment. But we don’t get involved in the clinical side of things, we don’t get involved in providing care. That’s a different business,” he explains.
This shift marks a clear evolution for Healthengine, moving from a practical booking solution to a platform that supports the entire patient journey. By keeping its focus on engagement rather than clinical care, the company positions itself as an enabler that helps providers work more efficiently while giving patients a smoother, more connected experience.
Creating Smarter Patient Engagement Tools
A key driver behind the growth of Healthengine is a strong investment in patient engagement and SaaS (Software as a Service) tools for clinics and healthcare providers. These tools go far beyond simple appointment bookings. They now include features such as waitlist management, recalls and reminders, online payments and custom forms, all created to make the administrative process easier for both patients and clinic staff.
Behind the scenes, a significant effort is being made to refine how patients and providers connect. Around half of Healthengine’s 35-person product engineering team is focused specifically on patient engagement technology. Clinics can integrate Healthengine’s booking system and other digital tools directly into their own websites, making the process smoother for patients while maintaining secure links with existing practice management systems. As Dan notes:
“If I could summarise it, it’s more of a focus on our patient engagement SaaS, and the second priority is broadening our marketplace.”
By focusing on integration and ease of use, platforms not only lighten the load for staff but also help patients feel more in control of their care. It is a step toward a healthcare experience that feels less fragmented and far more connected.
Connecting Care Across Specialties
For many patients, moving between different types of care can feel disjointed and frustrating. One of the biggest challenges in Australia’s healthcare system is the lack of connection between specialties. Healthengine has addressed this by bringing more than 10,000 practices onto its marketplace, covering not only GPs but also dentists, allied health professionals, specialists and pharmacists. The goal is to give patients the ability to manage their whole care team in one place through a single, unified platform.
“We’re really trying to create a service for a patient’s point of view, where their entire care team can be managed on the one platform,” Dan says.
This approach also brings clear benefits for healthcare providers. With clinics of all sizes facing rising costs and ongoing workforce shortages, patient engagement software can play a vital role in easing the load. By freeing up staff time, reducing missed appointments and supporting business sustainability, these tools allow providers to focus more energy on delivering quality care.
The Patient Experience: Beyond Online Bookings
For some people, first impressions of Healthengine are tied to booking a GP appointment online. For the average Australian, it may still be seen mostly as the tool their clinic uses to manage appointments. But patient behaviour is steadily evolving. According to Dan, up to four million people use Healthengine every month, and more than half now manage their entire care teams within the app, making use of features like record sharing, repeat prescription management and other administrative services.
“I guess a lot of people would just view us as an online booking tool — but you can have your whole care team there, and we’re putting a lot of effort into making it easier for patients to share records and manage their health,” says Dan.
This shift shows how digital platforms can grow from being a single-purpose tool into something that supports the broader patient journey. By offering more ways to stay organised and connected, Healthengine is positioning itself as more than just a booking service. It is becoming a partner in how Australians engage with and manage their health.
Enhancing Care Without Replacing It
As healthcare becomes more digitised, the role of technology companies is evolving in different directions. While some are beginning to provide aspects of care themselves or blur the boundaries between administration and clinical services, Healthengine has chosen a different path. The company has made its position clear: it is there to support care delivery, not replace it.
“We are not in the business of providing care,” Dan affirms. “We stay entirely out of the clinical side of what our customers do on the provider side.”
Drawing this boundary is key to building trust with both clinics and patients. Healthengine continues to focus on administrative support, secure integration and post-appointment follow-up, rather than offering clinical advice or direct patient care. By staying in this space, the platform reinforces its role as an enabler that helps healthcare run more smoothly without interfering in the provider–patient relationship.
AI in Action: A New Kind of Receptionist
One of the most notable recent developments is “Helen,” Healthengine’s AI-powered virtual receptionist. Helen is designed to answer clinic phone calls, manage new appointments, process cancellations and reschedules, and handle multiple calls simultaneously, even after regular business hours.
“It’s pretty basic. It’s an AI receptionist, right? So it can answer the phone of a GP clinic and it can make, cancel, reschedule bookings… just over half of all incoming calls into a typical GP medical centre are people wanting to make or change a booking,” Dan explains.
To ensure patient safety and clarity, Helen has been carefully designed with clear limits. She is restricted to handling only administrative tasks. If a caller raises a clinical issue or describes symptoms, the call is immediately redirected to a human receptionist who can provide the right level of support. Dan stresses the importance of privacy and data security:
“None of the datapatient engagement of the patients that are matched ever leaves the practice.” He adds, “We see our role as helping our customers deliver care better and have more time to focus on that. The datapatient engagement side is where we sit — everything before and after an appointment.”
By keeping Helen focused on the basics, Healthengine strikes a balance between efficiency and responsibility. Patients still get the reassurance of human support when it matters most, while clinics benefit from faster and more reliable handling of everyday requests. It is a model that blends the speed of technology with the trust of human care.
The Real-World Impact of AI in Practice
Front desk staff in primary care often face the strain of heavy administrative workloads, which can lead to long hold times for patients, overwhelmed receptionists and bottlenecks within clinics. Dan notes that younger patients, despite being highly digital in many areas of life, still prefer to call a clinic when they are driving or multitasking, seeking a quick and simple way to change an appointment. From pilot studies, Dan observes:
“You’re never waiting on hold to speak to someone… you can have 30 calls coming in at one time and all of those 30 calls can be dealt with at the same time. And you can do this after hours, and on weekends, and in peak times.”
Patient attitudes toward automation in healthcare are beginning to shift. Early research from Healthengine indicates that roughly 80% of patients are comfortable interacting with a bot for straightforward administrative tasks, particularly when it helps them avoid waiting in a queue
Public Perceptions of Automation in Healthcare
Technology has long played a role in how patients connect with their healthcare providers. While automated phone systems are not new, the rise of lifelike and intelligent AI agents could significantly change what people expect from these interactions. The real question is how patients will respond to this shift. Dan is pragmatic:
“Some people hear that it’s a bot and immediately say ‘Transfer to the front desk’ because they just don’t want to deal with it. But when the benefit is you’re never having to wait on hold… almost all Australian patients and consumers are going to be like, well, that’s absolutely a much better circumstance than where we are now.”
Trust is one of the most important factors when introducing new technology into healthcare. Providing a consistent and friendly experience, while being transparent about when a bot is being used, is essential to earning patient confidence as AI becomes more visible. In doing so, clinics can reassure patients that technology is there to support them, not to take away the human connection they value.
Delays in Care: What the Numbers Tell Us
In addition to its technology platforms, Healthengine contributes valuable insights into the wider health system through the Australian Healthcare Index, an annual survey of public opinion carried out with Patients Australia. The most recent results highlight a concerning pattern, showing that more Australians are postponing or skipping essential healthcare, dental appointments and prescription medications because of rising out-of-pocket expenses.
“There’s a trend which we have been observing, which is consistently getting a little bit worse every time we do the survey, and that is that Australian patients are delaying essential healthcare because of cost of living pressures,” Dan notes.
Despite these challenges, most Australians still rate their healthcare system positively. At the same time, consistent tracking and transparency around these trends remain vital for shaping meaningful policy and funding decisions. By keeping a clear view of where patients are struggling, the system has a better chance of adapting to meet their needs in the future.
Why the Human Connection Still Matters
For all its emphasis on software and automation, Healthengine defines its mission as supporting the human side of healthcare. The goal is to ease the burden on staff and give providers more time to focus on delivering care rather than managing paperwork. AI and booking tools are presented as productivity enhancers, complementing the skills and compassion of clinical teams rather than replacing them. Dan sums up this philosophy:
“There’s always going to be an important role for people to play and humans to play in this. What we’re really optimistic about… is the more effective we are at building these patient engagement tools and taking the load off the front desk, the better quality of care and the better interactions that patients are going to have once they get into the clinic.”
By positioning technology in this supportive role, Healthengine highlights the importance of keeping people at the centre of care. The efficiencies created by automation are not an end in themselves but a way to create more meaningful interactions between patients and providers. In this way, digital tools become a quiet partner in ensuring that the human connection remains strong.
The Role of the Marketplace in Modern Healthcare
With the expansion of the Healthengine marketplace in both size and capability, more Australians are being linked to the services they need when they need them. For healthcare providers, the platform delivers greater visibility, improved efficiency and stronger patient loyalty. For patients, having one central digital hub simplifies the process and makes it easier to manage care across different providers. Dan highlights:
“We think there’s huge benefits to healthcare providers, and we also think there’s huge benefits to patients.”
This growing connectivity also reflects a broader shift toward patient-centred healthcare. By reducing barriers between providers and giving patients more control over their care journey, platforms like Healthengine are creating a more seamless experience. Ultimately, this helps build stronger relationships between patients and practitioners, grounded in convenience and trust.
Looking Ahead: Steady Progress Over Sudden Change
When it comes to the future of healthcare technology, bold predictions and big promises are common. Despite the noise, Healthengine takes a more pragmatic view, focusing on steady, incremental progress. The company continues to invest in patient engagement tools and the expansion of its marketplace, while also looking toward AI-driven efficiencies such as automated recalls and patient reminders. As Dan suggests:
“It’s probably more of the same. We’re going to be investing more and more in patient engagement… and we think that AI is just going to play an increasingly important role in that.”
Healthcare innovation is often measured in sudden leaps, but consistent growth can be just as powerful. This emphasis on steady, long-term progress is reflected in the marketplace’s performance, which has seen 20% year-on-year growth alongside continued investment in improving the patient experience. Looking ahead, this approach positions Healthengine to adapt to evolving patient expectations while strengthening its role in the healthcare ecosystem.
A Human Future for Healthcare, Supported by Technology
Digital transformation is not about replacing doctors, nurses, or practice managers. It’s about giving them the tools to do more of what matters and less of what doesn’t. As AI, patient engagement software, and unified marketplaces become standard features, the winners will be those who build trust, uphold security, and always put patients and providers first.
The future of Australian healthcare is more connected, more convenient, and above all, more human, with technology working quietly in the background to ensure care shines at the moments that matter most. What lies ahead is not a replacement of people with machines, but a partnership where digital tools remove barriers and create space for genuine connection. In this balance, the true promise of healthtech is revealed: a system where innovation serves humanity and patients remain at the heart of every advance.
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Talking Health Tech, the move to patient engagement tools seems smart. Cost pressures delaying care is a worry, and AI receptionists could really help clinics.