Telus Expands Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Business

TELUS Health has acquired the electronic medical record (EMR) business operated by MD Practice Software LP, a member of the MD Physician Services Group and a subsidiary of the Canadian Medical Association. The acquisition of MD Practice Software LP, Ontario’s largest EMR provider, positions TELUS Health as Canada’s largest electronic medical record provider with some 7 million health records.

TELUS Health currently provides EMR systems in Western Canada and Quebec, and offers solutions to all major stakeholders in the health system, including physicians, hospitals, pharmacies and extended healthcare providers such as physiotherapists and chiropractors. Financial terms of this acquisition were not disclosed. 

The patient health record business has been slower to develop than expected. However, some analysts believe this area of consumer services will be significant for human and animal health as the future unfolds.

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TELUS AND SANOFI LAUNCH WEB BASED DIABETES MANAGEMENT

TELUS Health has partnered with Sanofi Canada to launch STARsystem, a private Web-based platform that gives diabetics free anywhere, anytime access to personalized education and self-management health tools. The STARsystem platform is available to diabetics who purchase BGStar and iBGStar blood glucose monitors, both developed by Sanofi Canada. Following a simple, user-friendly format, users answer a series of preliminary questions to determine their level of knowledge about diabetes. This “triage” process then allows the system to suggest relevant and current content based on each patient’s preferences and expertise.


Why is this important?  It is yet another example of how web based services and cloud computing will be used to deliver personalized health services in the human area. Diabetes is becoming a significant issue as the average age of pets increases. Will consumers clamor for similar services to protect their companion animals? What will be the impact for Health Services in the companion animal industry? 


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TELUS AND QUEENSWAY CARLETON HOSPITAL EXPAND PATIENT RECORD DISTRIBUTION

TELUS Health Solutions and Ottawa’s Queensway Carleton Hospital (QCH) have announced the expansion of the TELUS CareShare program that accelerates distribution of patient clinical documentation and Admitted Patient Notifications from emergency department visits to patients’ family doctors. More than 120 family doctors are receiving emergency treatment records within hours of a patient’s emergency department visit. The six-month pilot project went live in December 2011, and more than 1,350 documents have been delivered to date. An additional 700 physicians are expected to be added to the program over the next few months. 

CareShare Results Distribution accelerates the distribution of patient records to care providers and health organizations. Previously, these types of documents would have been delivered by mail or courier service. Physicians involved in the pilot with QCH have three notification and document delivery options: e-mail notification that a document is available for them; secure access Web portal where physicians and their staff can view available documents and retrieve documents to review, save locally for attachment to Electronic Medical Records (EMR), or print; and receiving documents by fax.