Dr Margaret Faux (PhD) – Founder & Chief Executive Officer

A passion for learning and working with people has steered Margaret through a rich and diverse working life. Her interest in the medical professions has endured throughout this journey and her dedication to the health sector lies at the heart of Synapse Medical Services.

Margaret is a health system lawyer who has a PhD on the topic of Medicare claiming and compliance. She is also an academic scholar of Medicare and health insurance law, who has published extensively both in peer reviewed journals and popular media. Margaret has been administering Australian medical billing since Medicare began (across every medical specialty), and also has extensive experience administering health financing arrangements in other countries. She is also a Registered Nurse, our founder and CEO, and is endlessly curious about the mysteries of Medicare, universal health coverage, and the way countries pay for health.

Margaret is considered one of Australia’s leading experts on the operation of Medicare and Australia’s health financing arrangements, and has an adjunct appointment at Southern Cross University working in medical billing and coding research. She is a well-respected and sought-after speaker and author of information on health financing systems, both in Australia and overseas.

As an entrepreneur, Margaret is constantly seeking new ways to improve efficiencies in health administration, by leveraging technology to digitise outdated manual processes.

Dr. Margaret Faux’s thesis, Claiming and Compliance under the Medicare Benefits Schedule: A Critical Examination of Medical Practitioner Experiences, Perceptions, Attitudes and Knowledge is now available online.

Martha Meares – Chief Financial Officer

Martha joined Synapse as Financial Controller in November 2015. She is an accomplished professional services manager who previously worked with Minter Ellison Lawyers for 14 years, most recently as Finance Director.

Martha’s role is to steer the financial management of Synapse and assist Principal Margaret Faux in maximising the profitability of the company. She has known Margaret for many years and is excited by the opportunity to help capitalise on the many opportunities for growth through innovation in health services.

“Australia’s future growth lies in professionial services and the health sector is right at the centre of that. I think it’s a really exiting time to be working in the area, and in a company like Synapse, which is all about innnovation and customer satisfaction.”

Guruprasad Krishnamurthy – Chief Operations Officer

Guruprasad Krishnamurthy, Chief Operations Officer at Synapse Medical Services is responsible for the company’s international strategy, direction and planning the operational activities across all locations around the globe.

Previously, Guru served as a Deputy General Manager – Operations for Synapse Medical in India for over 4 years, he managed the deliverables and oversaw medical billing processes for inpatients, outpatients and specialty clinics in both the public and private sectors of all states of Australia. He also conducted training and assessment in Australian privacy regulations and protocols.

Prior to Synapse, Guru served as a Sr. Manager – Operations for Technosoft Corporation, an IT and BPM service provider in the healthcare sector managing a revenue cycle portfolio for multiple clients.

Before that, Guru served as an Account Manager for Anaesthesia Resources Pty Ltd, a group of anaesthetists and pain management specialists in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Over this 2-year period, he became familiar with American medical billing, coding and financial management, as well as gaining valuable experience in office management, quality assurance and operational processes.

Guru has a Bachelor of Science (Mathematics) from the University of Madras and brings over 14 years of extensive experience in the healthcare sector to the Synapse team

“I am excited by this next phase of Synapse. We’re well positioned to enhance services to our existing valued customers whilst bringing in new business. We have a prodigious mix of personnel to provide unique services globally.”

Hridesh Kohli – General Manager, India

Hridesh joined Synapse in May 2016. Since joining Synapse Hridesh has served as the Chennai office Manager and is responsible for streamlining the Operations, HR & Admin functions along with the overall development of the Chennai site.

With 15+ years’ experience Hridesh brings his expertise in managing large teams across contact centre operations (tech support / retail customer service), complaints remediation and payments processing to the management team. His career experiences include Service Delivery, managing Client Relationships, Quality Assurance & Process Migration to name a few. Hridesh firmly believes in collaboration across functions to optimise the operational performance.

“It is exciting to be a part of Synapse where the passion for transforming ‘global healthcare administration & compliance’ drives our way of working. We are at the start of something very meaningful.”

Rio Diep – Information Technology Director

Rio joined Synapse in February 2013 as a fresh graduate from the University of Technology Sydney with Distinction in Bachelor of IT studies.

He has almost 10 years of hands-on experience with cutting edge healthcare technology and played a vital role in the first, comprehensive medical billing app in Australia, Synapps MBS.

Rio has a great interest in his craft and has to remain at the forefront of key industry and software changes due to the nature of our business and ensuring our clients are using the latest technologies, MBS updates coupled with the latest security measures. His work and team are pivotal in our status of ISO certified for Data Security 27001 and ISO quality 9001. Rio has led major structural improvements within the business such as the migration of infrastructure from on-premises to cloud in his early days with the company. The level of IT sophistication he has helped to create enabled the Synapse team and our valued clients to have no downtime during emergency Covid times.

Promoted to Director of Information Technology across the whole company in 2019, Rio now manages an IT team across multiple locations that are focussed on automation, enhancing user experience and reducing operational cost for Synapse and partners via market leading integrations.

“I have grown with Synapse and we feel we are still getting going. We’ve introduced vast software system improvements and already have a roadmap for much more in the coming years. I look forward to driving this next phase of development as we use our technology solutions to improve our market share, both here in Australia and abroad.”

Heather Grain – Health Informatician | Coding Manager

Heather has international and national expertise in the development, implementation, management and governance of health information and information systems and education.

She provides a practical implementation-based approach combined with a strong academic background. As an expert in health data modelling and concept representation she has worked with hospitals, primary care, district nursing and diagnostic service and with national programs in Europe, USA, Australia, Brazil, China.

Heather is active in the implementation of eHealth solutions, including those using SNOMED CT advising EHR and clinical knowledge management implementations, natural language processing, mapping and data specification.

She is also recognised as a leader, having been elected by her peers in the Standards community as Member of IFHIMA Strategic Directions Pillar, Past Chair of HL7 Terminology Authority, Past Co-Chair HL7 Vocabulary Working Group, and Convenor ISO TC215 WG3 Semantic Content. Past Chair of SNOMED International Education SIG, and expert member of the eLearning Advisory Committee.

Thom Soutter – Business Development Director

Thom joined Synapse in October 2016 with responsibility for continuing our organic international growth, namely into the UAE and UK markets. Thom will act as our Global Business Development Consultant with focus on new routes to market to increase the visibility of Synapse.

Thom has a wealth of knowledge within Business Development, having recently built a corporate proposition in the UK from scratch for a leading Medico-Legal agency. Thom will be based in Dubai but move within the group as required.

Having worked in the legal sector for the best part of a decade, been client relationship manager at a leading UK law firm at the age of just 25 and, most recently, having spent two years working for an internationally recognised law firm in Dubai, Thom brings with him a variety of experience from both a sales and operational standpoint.

Ambitious and approachable, Thom is great at fostering long standing relationships and is driven by the desire to provide exceptional customer service. His appointment signals a new exciting stage in the growth of Synapse Medical Services.

“I’m very excited by this project. Synapse and I are a perfect fit. I look forward to driving our growth on an international scale, through our first class knowledge, service and bespoke technology.”