Best Practice Software has led a $5.4 million capital raise for Australian clinical education company Medcast, with the investment set to accelerate development of its MedLuma clinical AI platform.
The funding will support the expansion of MedLuma – including deeper integrations with clinical software and growth of Medcast’s technology and clinical teams.
The MedLuma platform seeks to provide clinicians with evidence-based answers grounded in Australian guidelines and clinical sources – with citations linking users to original material.
The companies said the investment would also see MedLuma integrated into Best Practice, with the aim of bringing clinical knowledge and professional learning into systems already used by clinicians.
Best Practice Software CEO Craig Hodges said AI had the potential to make clinical information easier to access within existing workflows.
“AI has enormous potential to support clinicians by bringing trusted knowledge into the workflow, but it will always complement – not replace – the clinical judgment, experience and patient-centred decision-making that define high-quality care,” he said.
“Our lead investment in Medcast reflects our confidence in the team, the MedLuma platform and the opportunity to build technology purpose-designed for Australian healthcare.”
Medcast founder and CEO Dr Stephen Barnett said the company was focused on developing AI grounded in Australian clinical evidence.
“AI has enormous potential to improve healthcare by bringing the right information into the right context. But in clinical care, speed and convenience are not enough,” he said.
“Clinicians need information they can trust, grounded in evidence and Australian practice. Solving this ‘last mile’ of medical-grade AI is the hard problem we are tackling.”
Medcast said MedLuma combines technical and human-in-the-loop validation and keeps Australian health data onshore. It also works with guideline providers and copyright holders to seek permission to use their content.
Australian general practice focus
MedLuma launched in early 2026 with an initial focus on Australian general practice. The platform is designed to reduce time spent searching across fragmented information sources while helping clinicians access current evidence and Australian clinical standards.
Medcast co-founder and chief product officer Justin Lewis said the provenance and governance of information would be important as clinical AI developed.
“AI-powered search is becoming increasingly easy to build. Medical-grade AI that clinicians can interrogate and trust is much harder,” he said.
“The opportunity for MedLuma is to create a trusted intelligence layer for Australian healthcare, bringing the right clinical knowledge into the flow of care.”
Add Comment