Iristel, Ice Wireless partner with Pharmaceutical Innovation to bring advanced telehealth services to Canada's North

Bluetooth-enabled 'virtual caregiver' and other amenities within Iristel's secured cloud infrastructure will be part of the Ice Wireless LTE roll out in 2017

MARKHAM, ON, Sept. 27, 2016 /CNW/ - Ice Wireless, a mobile network operator in Canada's North, and its parent company Iristel Inc., a national telecom carrier, are joining forces with Pharmaceutical Innovation Ltd. to offer advanced telehealth services to rural and isolated Arctic and sub-Arctic areas, including amenities not yet available on other wireless networks across Canada.

"This is exciting to introduce such cutting-edge e-Health initiatives to Canada's North, an area filled with rural communities that historically find themselves on the backburner when it comes to technological advances," says Samer Bishay, president of both Iristel and Ice Wireless. "Using Iristel's secured cloud infrastructure and Pharm Innovation's robust products and services, Ice will begin its e-health pilot early in 2017."

It will mean doctors, nurses and family members can monitor patients and loved ones remotely and in real-time. For example, among the many varied applications, if an elderly person forgets to take her medication or her heartrate and blood pressure spike, caregivers hundreds or thousands of kilometres away will be alerted. Location-based technology will allow the app to locate the nearest hospital or health facility to the primary user and the app ensures that prescriptions are automatically refilled at the user's pharmacy of choice.  

"Pharm Innovation has developed notable, original products that provide a holistic patient-centred approach to healthcare and medication management, insuring compliance and adherence," Mr. Bishay says. "And Iristel and Ice are delivering them in a secure environment, protecting individuals' private medical records."

One such service is Health Espresso, a Bluetooth-enabled app that acts as a virtual caregiver through innovative technology and a friendly interface that is equipped with verbal communication and speech recognition. The primary user, typically an elderly or physically-challenged individual, wears a Bluetooth-enabled medical data collection device. A secondary user, either a family member or doctor, is connected to the data from the app at all times. The app also populates and tracks medication intake and checks for any adverse drug-to-drug interaction.

"Working with Iristel and Ice is a great fit, not only culturally through shared vision of using technology to improve lives, but because we see it critically important to roll out e-health in rural areas where patients sometimes travel hours and hours to get medical attention we take for granted in urban areas," says Tamer Mikhail, president and founder of Pharmaceutical Innovation.

About Iristel and Ice Wireless

Iristel is Canada's largest and fastest-growing Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) providing innovative communication services that are changing how consumers and businesses communicate. Founded in 1999 and licenced by the CRTC, Markham-based Iristel is Canada's only carrier with facilities in all 10 provinces and three territories and a network extending Coast-to-Coast-to-Coast.

Ice Wireless is a facilities-based mobile network operator that delivers state-of-the-art 3G/4G HSPA+ technology to rural and remote areas of Canada with LTE coming in 2017. Ice Wireless was launched in Inuvik, Northwest Territories in 2005. The Ice network covers 75% of the population of the Yukon and Northwest Territories and also provides service to Iqaluit, Nunavut and Northern Quebec.

For more information, please visit www.icewireless.ca or www.iristel.com.
@iristel @icewireless

SOURCE Iristel Inc.

Media Relations Contact: Bob Brehl, Media Relations, [email protected], T: [phone]