All the talk this week has been about the changing of the guard at Australia’s largest health IT company, with news that NSW Health secretary Elizabeth Koff will take over from her predecessor, Mary Foley, as the next MD at Telstra Health. Professor Foley was very warmly regarded by both her peers and her staff and in addition to setting the company on the path to profitability and buying up some pretty valuable assets, she has weathered a number of political storms with aplomb.

Telstra Health recently won a large contract outside of the healthcare industry – a $200 million, five-year deal to run Australia’s 1800RESPECT national assault, domestic and family violence hotline – signalling that it is now able to leverage some of the infrastructure it put into place for huge projects like the National Cancer Screening Register. It will be interesting in the next year or so to see how it handles the MedicalDirector transition (we are still convinced it paid too much) and its plans for international expansion under its new leadership.