Consulting
Regulated Industries Consulting Services
Australian healthcare is small, regulated, and unforgiving of operators who treat clinical governance, medical leadership, regulatory compliance, and product strategy as separate problems. They are not. The same incident report can sit in front of an AHPRA notification, a board risk register, a TGA pharmacovigilance review, and a product retrospective inside the same week.
I work with telehealth platforms, medicinal cannabis operators, aesthetic medicine groups, and health-tech founders who need a clinician who can hold all four threads. I am still treating patients, still building software, and still subject to the same regulators my clients answer to — which keeps the advice practical rather than retrospective.
Engagements are delivered through Health Data Research Pty Ltd. Most retainers cover two or more of the four practice areas below.
Services
Regulated Industries Consulting
Four practice areas, one engagement model: a clinically-active doctor who has built and operated the systems he now advises on. Most clients retain across two or three of these — governance, leadership, compliance, and technology rarely arrive as separate problems in regulated healthcare.
Working background
- AHPRA-registered medical practitioner; MBBS, James Cook University (2010).
- TGA Authorised Prescriber for medicinal cannabis.
- Founder and CEO, Claims Doctor (Health Data Research Pty Ltd) — same-day WorkCover and CTP telehealth.
- Active in medical education and clinical governance; Certificate in Dermoscopy, Skin Cancer College of Australasia.
- Active medicinal cannabis prescriber across Alternaleaf and Sirius Green; in-room cosmetic medicine at Concept Cosmetics, Drummoyne.
- Public writing on clinical governance and AI in healthcare at rob.doctor/blog.
For engagement enquiries, use the contact page and select the business or partnerships route.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Dr Robert Laidlaw consult on?
- Four practice areas, all focused on Australian regulated healthcare: clinical governance, medical leadership, compliance and governance (TGA, AHPRA, state real-time prescription monitoring), and medical technology. Most retainers cover two or more of these because the problems are rarely isolated. Engagements are delivered through Health Data Research Pty Ltd.
- Who are the typical clients?
- Telehealth platforms scaling beyond founder-level oversight, medicinal cannabis operators reviewing their model after the AHPRA December 2024 position statement, aesthetic medicine groups working under tightening state-level cosmetic regulation, and health-tech founders and investors who need a credible clinician on the team or in the data room.
- Is this fractional CMO work?
- Yes — fractional CMO and Medical Director engagements are part of the medical leadership practice. Engagements range from short advisory packages and due-diligence reviews through to interim CMO cover when an existing CMO has departed or a regulator response is in flight.
- Why a treating clinician rather than a generalist consultant?
- Because the regulators do not give credit for theory. A clinician who is currently prescribing under the TGA, registering under AHPRA, and operating across state real-time prescription monitoring schemes will read a clinical governance paper or a regulator response very differently from a management consultant who is not. The advice stays practical because the operator is also a practitioner.
- Where does AI fit in?
- AI features prominently in the medical technology and clinical governance practices. The work covers drift monitoring, clinician override surfaces, named accountability mapping, and integration design for AI scribes and clinical documentation tools — all anchored in the AHPRA expectation that the treating clinician remains accountable.
- How do we engage Dr Laidlaw?
- Use the contact page and select the business or partnerships route. Most engagements begin with a scoping conversation to understand the regulator-facing exposure, the clinical operating model, and the timing pressure, before agreeing a retainer or fixed-scope package through Health Data Research Pty Ltd.