Telstra Health will develop and operate the new National Cancer Screening Register.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health confirmed Telstra Health as the winner of a competitive tender process that commenced in August last year.
Telstra Health has emerged in recent years through acquisitions and partnerships with existing players in the health system, including UK-based healthcare data and information company, Dr Foster, and the Fred IT Group.
The National Cancer Screening Register will receive $178.3 million over five years to replace current state and territory registers for the National Cervical Screening Program and the current register for the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program.
The funding was confirmed in the recent Budget and follows related measures announced in the 2014-15 and 2015-16 Budgets.
"The Register will create a single view for Australians participating in cervical and bowel cancer screening, meaning for the first time: one record for each participant," said the Department spokeswoman.
"By integrating the Register with GPs' desktops, GPs will be able to identify patients' screening eligibility and history to support real time clinical decision-making. Health professionals, including pathology providers, will have improved access to their patients' information."
It is estimated that millions of Australians will benefit from streamlined invitation and reporting.
Around 1.4 million Australian women aged 25 to 74 will be invited to participate in cervical screening and almost 10 million eligible Australians aged 50 to 74 will be invited to participate in bowel screening.
"Teams from Information Technology and Population Health and Sport Divisions will now work with Telstra Health to implement the Register," said the Department. "There will also be significant collaboration with our colleagues in the Department of Human Services and the state and territory governments to transition nine separate cancer registers into a single National Cancer Screening Register. The Register is expected to be operational to align with the commencement of the renewed National Cervical Screening Program on 1 May 2017."
