Telus Corp. has expanded its medical solutions portfolio by buying a Quebec-based provider of cloud-based electronic medical records for doctors offices.
The telco said Wednesday it has bought privately-held KinLogix Medical, which it says will further its fledgling efforts in the EMR market.
The KinLogix EMR is a cloud-based solution used in medical clinics that captures, organizes, and displays critical patient data in an integrated patient record, Telus said in a release.
Generally, the industry classifies EMRs as records held by doctors while electronic health records (EHRs) are a broader set of patient records held by hospitals. Telus has been offering its Oacis EHR, pharmacy and personal medical records solutions for years. But it broke into the EMR space in Feburary with the acquisition of Wolf Medical systems, a cloud-based provider that served doctors in B.C. and Alberta. Since then Telus has been offering Wolf EMR across the country.
KinLogix is a bilingual cloud service aimed at physicians in Quebec.
Dr. Brendan Byrne, founder of Wolf Medical who is now Telus’ vice-president of physician solutions, said in an interview that in buying KinLogix Telus is furthering its national strategy to be a leader in EMR offerings to doctors.
While Wolf and KinLogix are both cloud offerings, he said they have differences — KinLogix has strengths in ease of use, while Wolf has strengths in data analysis and reporting.
Over time, he said, the applications will merge into a single platform that can be offered to doctors across the country.
KinLogix has a staff of 17. Telus plans to increase that, Byrne said.
Byrne wouldn’t detail how KinLogix is priced, saying the new Quebec government is negotiating a fee schedule.
“Telus Health is committed to bringing best in class technology solutions to healthcare professionals so they can spend more time delivering high quality care to patients,” Paul Lepage, senior vice-president of the division said in a news release announcing the del.
“By acquiring KinLogix, Telus is delivering on its national strategy which will further the adoption of EMRs, an essential building block to an efficient healthcare system in Canada.”
Founded in 2000 by Dr. Michel Hébert, KinLogix solutions are deployed in more than 200 medical clinics and support the work of more than 5,700 healthcare professionals in Quebec, Telus [TSX; T] said.
“In aligning under Telus we’ll be able to better answer physicians’ needs and continue to develop innovative solutions, allowing for additional collaboration across the continuum of care, Hebert said in the release.
RELATED CONTENT
