Telus Corp. has expanded its medical solutions portfolio by buying a Quebec-based provider of cloud-based electronic medical records (EMR) for doctors offices.
The telco said Wednesday it has bought privately-held KinLogix Medical Inc., which it says will further its fledgling efforts in the EMR market. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
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.
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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. It claims more than a third of Quebec’s EMR market with its system used by more than 200 clinics.
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.
Founded in 2000, KinLogix has a staff of 17. Telus plans to increase that, Byrne said.
Telus Corp. has been building a business in taking doctors digital. (Photo: Shutterstock)
KinLogix has helped its clients become paperless offices with mobile solutions that allowed doctors to write prescriptions directly onto touch-screen tablets and save them. The system also warns doctors of potential drug conflicts.
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 deal.
“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.
With notes from Brian Jackson
