Our story

The early days

In 2022, the seeds for this initiative weren’t sown in a tech lab, but at the kitchen table. Nathanael watched his wife, Crissy, transition from the structured world of public mental health as an OT to the daunting reality of starting her own private practice.

She wasn’t just moving offices. She was taking on the financial risks, the sleepless nights, and the “am I doing this right?” doubts that every small business owner knows all too well. Seeing Crissy navigate those hurdles made one thing very clear: the healthcare sector is full of brilliant clinicians who are often left to fly solo when it comes to the complex business of running a practice.

20 years in the making

Scott and Nathanael weren’t exactly new to the game. With over 20 years of business expertise already gained in their digital marketing agency, Excite Media, they knew how to build, scale, and secure organisations. They realised that while Crissy had the clinical side covered, the “backend” —the compliance, the security, and the business structure— was a massive burden for a solo practitioner.

They decided to put their experience to work for the community. Instead of just giving advice, they put their money where their mouth was and launched a grant program in 2023 to support new private practices.

A legacy of support

The program was a roaring success. By the end of 2023, Scott and Nathanael had helped a dozen new practices get off the ground, providing the stability and confidence needed to turn a clinical dream into a local reality.

Through this process, they saw firsthand that the biggest “bogeyman” for these new owners was often the technical side of patient privacy. They saw clinicians —motivated by a genuine desire to help people— unknowingly using tools that didn’t meet the rigorous Australian standards.

The next chapter

Today, the Australian Health Privacy Initiative is the natural evolution of that support. The Australian Health Privacy Initiative exists because we know what’s at stake — the reputations, finances, and peace of mind of people like Crissy. Excite Media has spent two decades learning how to protect businesses, and now they’re dedicated to protecting the people who care for the rest of us.

Powered by Excite Media

Founded in 2006 by Scott and Nathanael, Excite Media has seen many stages of evolution — starting out as a web design agency, evolving to offer digital marketing, and more recently, carving out a niche within the health industry.

It was this process that saw us realise the innate privacy risks in the healthcare sector and understand the challenges most Aussie healthcare businesses face. The Australian Healthcare Privacy Initiative is powered by Excite Media in a bid to help healthcare businesses mitigate the risks they haven’t realised and protect the everyday Australian’s privacy.