VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Sept. 3, 2014) - TELUS Health, Canada's largest Electronic Medical Records (EMR) provider and a leader in the Canadian claims and benefits management sector, is adding important new functionality to its existing health technology portfolio through its acquisition of an interest in the underlying technology of the ZRx Prescriber from Quebec-based ZoomMed. ZRx Prescriber is an intuitive web-based prescriber that allows physicians to use a mobile device to quickly and accurately write and deliver prescriptions for patients while accessing the patient's insurance coverage information directly at the moment of prescription.
With the acquisition of ZoomMed's ZRx prescriber, TELUS Health will become the first Canadian healthcare technology company to offer insurance coverage validation nationally at the moment of prescription. This technology will provide physicians across Canada instant access to patients' insurance coverage information, allowing them to prescribe within the patient's plan parameters when possible, speeding up the insurance claim and improving the patient's experience during the dispensing process. When using the ZRx Prescriber, physicians are prompted based on their prescription habits and their most commonly prescribed drugs for each condition; they also have access to contextual drug information from pharmaceutical companies about new drugs and drug substitutions.
The ZRx prescriber is currently used by 520 medical clinics in Quebec and Ontario to process 400,000 new drug prescriptions monthly. This agreement, effective September 3, includes transferring affected ZoomMed Canadian employees to TELUS Health and will give TELUS sole ownership of ZRx Prescriber and its IP in Canada.
"This acquisition builds upon our EMR leadership position and claims and benefits expertise, and allows us to have a more direct and positive impact on the patient experience, which ultimately leads to better health outcomes for Canadians," said Paul Lepage, President, TELUS Health. "Medication management is a pain point in Canada's healthcare system as most processes in use today aren't automated, take longer to execute and are at a higher risk of error. By integrating innovative features from ZRx Prescriber into our already robust and secure EMR solution, we can facilitate better collaboration among healthcare providers, limit prescription errors, maintain customer confidentiality, reduce patient frustration and make the healthcare processes more accurate and efficient."
TELUS Health plans to gradually integrate the advanced capabilities of the ZRx Prescriber functionality into EMRs used by more than 13,000 physicians across Canada.
TELUS Health has invested more than $1 billion through its dedicated team of 1,600 health innovators to bring healthcare information technology to market. TELUS continues to invest in and develop innovative technologies to positively impact many of the key issues facing the Canadian healthcare system and facilitate better collaboration among healthcare providers.
About TELUS Health
TELUS Health is a leader in telehomecare, electronic medical and health records, consumer health, benefits management and pharmacy management. TELUS Health solutions give health authorities, providers, physicians, patients and consumers the power to turn information into better health outcomes.
For more information about TELUS Health, please visit www.telushealth.com .
About TELUS
TELUS (TSX:T)(NYSE:TU) is Canada's fastest-growing national telecommunications company, with $11.7 billion of annual revenue and 13.4 million customer connections, including 7.9 million wireless subscribers, 3.2 million wireline network access lines, 1.4 million Internet subscribers and 865,000 TELUS TV customers. TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services, including wireless, data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, television, entertainment and video, and is Canada's largest healthcare IT provider.
In support of our philosophy to give where we live, TELUS, our team members and retirees have contributed more than $350 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered 5.4 million hours of service to local communities since 2000. 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 www.telus.com .
