TELUS acquires Wolf Medical Systems, Canada's fastest-growing cloud-based EMR (Electronic Medical Record) provider

Acquisition creates TELUS Physician Solutions line of business dedicated to helping physicians improve productivity and deliver better health outcomes for patients

VANCOUVER, Feb. 2, 2012 /CNW/ - TELUS Health Solutions today announced the acquisition of Wolf Medical Systems. This acquisition will create a new line of business within TELUS Health Solutions called TELUS Physician Solutions. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

TELUS has selected Wolf based on its people, technology, and a shared vision of how information, communications and technology (ICT) can transform healthcare for Canadians. Wolf Medical Systems is Canada's largest and fastest-growing cloud-based EMR provider. Since 2010, over 11 million patient visits have been documented by physicians using Wolf EMR. On a typical day, physicians using the system see more than 26,000 patients, prescribe 23,000 medications and review 166,000 lab results. Now, access to EMRs can be further expanded by combining Wolf's hosted, cloud-based technology with TELUS' secure, wireless and wireline broadband communications networks.

The addition of Wolf EMR (for physicians) rounds out TELUS' portfolio of world class health record solutions including TELUS health space (for the home and on the go via a smartphone or tablet) and Oacis (for healthcare institutions). TELUS is now uniquely positioned to facilitate the integration of health records from the home, to the doctor's office and to the hospital; ensuring critical health information is available to care providers over secure, wireline and wireless broadband networks wherever and whenever they need it.

"Electronic medical records are an essential building block to an efficient healthcare system in Canada," explained Paul Lepage, senior vice-president, TELUS Health Solutions. "While EMRs have been proven to increase efficiency and performance at both the clinical and regional healthcare system levels, Canada's EMR penetration rate of about 32 per cent lags behind other OECD countries. By committing to the EMR market with a best-in-class solution, combined with the connectivity that our wireless and wireline broadband networks enable, we are positioned to help increase this adoption rate which will in turn improve work processes, efficiencies in service delivery, and patient health outcomes."

The new TELUS Physician Solutions organization will be led by Dr. Brendan Byrne, a practicing physician and founder of Wolf Medical Systems. Dr. Byrne's team of more than 75 EMR professionals, paired with the depth and resources of TELUS, will allow for the rapid expansion of capabilities uniquely directed at the physician market.

"Joining the TELUS team is a tremendous opportunity for Wolf Medical Systems to fully realize our vision to be trusted by physicians to turn information into outcomes," said Dr. Brendan Byrne, vice-president, TELUS Physician Solutions. "TELUS and Wolf are already deeply aligned in our commitment to develop and support technology that helps doctors help patients. Now as part of TELUS, we can deepen our investments to improve the physician experience and productivity, re-define EMR in terms of outcomes rather than features and leverage the TELUS brand, health portfolio and high-speed networking capabilities."

TELUS Physician Solutions EMR will be enhanced with the addition of mobility, care collaboration, homecare and consumer solutions.  This will help doctors coordinate and share information with their extended healthcare team and their patients and families anywhere, anytime.

Over the past 13 years Wolf Medical Systems has evolved EMR from a simple software product to a market leading cloud-based EMR solution. Since 2010, the company has exclusively committed to cloud-based technology to enhance the physician experience in terms of patient care and physician productivity while focusing on health outcomes. The result is a secure, highly available, highly reliable cloud-based EMR that reduces the investment required by physicians as they upgrade from paper files to electronic systems.

About TELUS Health Solutions
TELUS Health Solutions is a leader in telehealth, electronic health records, remote patient monitoring, mobile home and community care, consumer health, benefits management and pharmacy management. Our solutions give health authorities, providers, physicians, patients and consumers the power to enhance decision making and improve outcomes for Canadians. TELUS Health Solutions is transforming how information is used across the continuum of care from hospital to home with solutions that foster collaboration, drive prevention and empower care teams and patients. TELUS Health Solutions is Canada's leading Healthcare IT Company as cited by the Branham Group for five years and for being honoured as the ITAC Health Company of the Year (2008) and Health Transformation Company of the Year (2009). For more information about TELUS Health Solutions, please visit www.telushealth.com and www.telushealthspace.com.

About TELUS
TELUS (TSX: T, T.A; NYSE: TU) is a leading national telecommunications company in Canada, with $10.3 billion of annual revenue and 12.6 million customer connections including 7.2 million wireless subscribers, 3.6 million wireline network access lines, 1.3 million Internet subscribers and more than 450,000 TELUS TV customers. Led since 2000 by President and CEO, Darren Entwistle, TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services including data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, entertainment and video.

In support of our philosophy to give where we live, TELUS, our team members and retirees have contributed $245 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered 4.1 million hours of service to local communities since 2000. Eleven TELUS Community Boards across Canada lead TELUS' local philanthropic initiatives. TELUS was honoured to be named the most outstanding philanthropic corporation globally for 2010 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, becoming the first Canadian company to receive this prestigious international recognition.

For more information about TELUS, please visit telus.com.