When we launched, Medly was simply a telehealth provider aiming to radically improve the affordability and accessibility of healthcare to Australians. Today, Medly’s intake system was included on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG) as a Class I Software as a Medical Device (SaMD), under the oversight of the Therapeutic Goods Administration. I think…

We moved Medly from prod to our live environment last night, with the intention of going live today. We’ve experienced several issues previously, and it’s taken us some time to get back to the launchpad. Needless to say – we have made it! Medly is now live and seeing new patients. Medly is for everyday…

A personal reflection on building Medly, the trade-offs, the setbacks, and why I believe Australia needs more affordable telehealth built with real clinical governance behind it.

Written by Dr William Maish Most healthcare software is built around idealised patient journeys that don’t reflect real-world behaviour. People forget details, struggle with medical terminology, or present late in their illness. A digital system must accommodate this reality, not pretend it doesn’t exist. Designing with real patients in mind means embracing redundancy, clarifying language,…

Written by Dr William Maish As digital health grows, clinical governance often lags behind. Many platforms operate without transparent medical oversight, clear escalation procedures or defined responsibility for safety. Yet governance is the backbone of any clinical service, whether physical or digital. Good governance in telehealth means having clear standards for documentation, follow-up, prescribing, and…

Written by Dr William Maish Speed has become the selling point for many digital health companies, but faster is not always better. When systems prioritise throughput over clinical depth, patients risk receiving incomplete assessments. The irony is that true efficiency comes from good structure, not speed. A system that captures essential information clearly and consistently…

Written by Dr William Maish Healthcare systems continue to operate on an assumption that is increasingly untrue: that continuity of care exists by default. For much of modern medical history, this assumption was reasonable. Patients were seen by a small number of clinicians over long periods of time. Medical decisions accumulated context organically. Responsibility for…

Written by Dr William Maish Most online medical forms still feel like outdated questionnaires. A modern digital intake system should behave more like a structured clinical conversation. It should adapt to patient responses, hide irrelevant questions, and surface issues that require escalation or clarification. Good digital intake is not about collecting more data; it is…

Written by Dr William Maish AI symptom checkers have become incredibly common, but their limitations are rarely discussed openly. These systems are helpful for basic direction, yet they often under-perform when the presentation is nuanced, rare or complicated by comorbidities. They also struggle when patients describe their symptoms in natural language that deviates from training…