Auckland, NZ - Nov 7 2008 Team Orion Health Adventure has finished first in the Ecomotion adventure race in Brazil today – winning the title of World Champion in the phenomenally fast-growing sport of Adventure Racing.

Orion Health Adventure, an all-Kiwi team, comprising of Anna Berthelsen, Brent Edwards, Stuart Lynch, and team captain Wayne Oxenham travelled a total of 529 km during the race; 246km biking, paddling 141km, 110 trekking, sailing 32km to finish in just 3 days and 21 hours.  

Crossing the finish line at 12:35pm local time the team were welcomed by a big party in the town of Jericoacoara. The team praised and thanked the generosity of the Brazilian people. "We were almost out of water, and then some residents had made a delicious juice for us," said Wayne Oxenham, captain of the team. "The Brazilian people are unbelievable," said Anna Berthelsen. Temperatures during the race were fiercely hot – reaching 49degrees Celsius on some days.

Wayne believes the decision to go through an optional checkpoint was one reason for the team’s victory. The bonus checkpoint meant that the team only had to sleep for 4 hours instead of the compulsory 8. "Team Nike wasn’t far behind and if it weren’t for this bonus time, they would have caught up to us," he said.
This is the third World Series Race win for Orion Health Adventure, following their win in Australia earlier this year, and the recent Turas event in Ireland – a record effort which catapulted Team Orion Health Adventure to the top of the global leader board in adventure racing.

The team is also unbeaten in more than a dozen consecutive 24 hour endurance races in New Zealand.

Orion Health, New Zealand’s leading health software company sponsors the four person team and CEO Ian McCrae said the values that drive the company; passion and determination to win over all odds, are a great match with those of Team Orion Health Adventure.

About Orion Health
Orion Health’s easy-to-use solutions and applications improve patient care and clinical decision-making by providing integrated health data in a single, unified view. By enhancing existing healthcare information systems, Orion Health’s Rhapsody integration engine, Concerto clinical portal, and workflow solutions provide healthcare workers with easy access to patient data and trends, and reduce errors and omissions by streamlining information transfer.

Worldwide, Orion Health is implementing health information communities involving over 35 million patients with tens of thousands of active users. Orion Health’s partners include leading health system integrators and IT vendors such as Accenture, IBM, Oracle Corporation and others. Orion Health has more than 1,000 clients around the world, including the New Zealand Ministry of Health, Auckland District Health Board, HealthAlliance, New South Wales, UCLA(USA), Capital Health (Canada) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). More information can be found at www.orionhealth.com.

For more information contact:
Amanda Ivanson,
Marketing Manager - APAC
Orion Health
09 638 0621