Careteq Limited announced that it has signed an exclusive reseller agreement with StrongRoom AI, that will expand the Group's Assistive Living Technology offering for aged and disability care. StrongRoom uses artificial intelligence (AI) and facial recognition to reduce the risk of preventable adverse drug events and improve patient outcomes and medical workflow. Careteq has the exclusive rights to sell StrongRoom's suite of Aged Care solutions (Strong Care) in Australia under the five-year agreement, which can be extended for another five plus five years.

While it is too early to ascertain the financial impact of the agreement on Careteq, the deal represents a significant opportunity for the Group because of the: Government incentives: In the wake of the Aged Care Royal Commission findings, the federal government is encouraging and incentivising Residential Aged Care Services (RACS) to transition their paper-based medication management system to a digital platform to reduce adverse drug reactions rates and Improve productivity. The government has put aside $45.4 million over four financial years to FY25 for implementation of the initiative and up to $30 million 1 (exclusive of GST) is made available via a grant for RACS to adopt Transitional or Electronic National Residential Medication Charts (eNRMC) Products, which includes StrongRoom's solutions. The federal government has additionally announced $345.7 million of funding for on-site pharmacists in government funded residential aged care facilities (RACFs).

To access Government funding for an on-site pharmacist, aged care homes participating in the new measure will be required to adopt an eNRMC such as StrongRoom's solution. Synergies with Ward MM: There are strong synergies between StrongRoom solutions and Careteq's Ward MM business, which is one of the large medication management providers in Australia. Most of the large residential aged care operators along the east coast and Victoria are clients of Ward MM.

This will enable Careteq to cross-sell StrongRoom to its large and established client base. Significant savings to clients: Apart from government incentives and grants, there are significant financial savings for RACFS organisations. Analysis conducted by StrongRoom's medical board estimates the platform delivers an 80% time saving per facility and that the cost savings for a 100-bed facility will be over $100,000 a year.

The increase in productivity is particularly relevant to the industry that has long struggled to find or afford sufficiently trained staff, and this does not include the additional benefit of drastically increasing the provider's monitoring and reporting capabilities to enable them to uphold the increased Residential Medication Management Review (RMMR) responsibilities that came into effect on 1 January 2022.