TELUS Health delivers next phase of virtual care to Canadians improving access to primary care and mental health support

TORONTO, June 10, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TELUS Health, Canada’s largest health IT company and the leading provider of virtual care across the country, today introduced TELUS Health MyCare following the recent acquisition of Babylon Health Canada. Previously known as Babylon by TELUS Health, TELUS Health MyCare is an important evolution of virtual care for Canadians offering a robust suite of health and wellbeing services and new and improved features. More Canadians are accessing preventative tools to guide changes in lifestyle for improved overall health, TELUS Health MyCare provides increased access to high-quality primary care with locally-licensed physicians in numerous languages, but also supports access to mental health counsellors and dietitians.

“The pandemic transformed the way that Canadians interact with the healthcare system. Demand for virtual care keeps growing, patients are overwhelmingly satisfied and we are excited to now refresh and enhance our TELUS Health MyCare service to provide more access to locally-licensed doctors, mental health counsellors, and dietitians across the country,” said Juggy Sihota, vice-president Consumer Health, TELUS. “For more than a decade, TELUS Health has been helping Canadians live their healthiest lives, and the evolution of our consumer virtual care service is an important step towards meeting the growing demand for much-needed health support for Canadians and their families.”

Latest evolution of TELUS Health MyCare

Since 2019, TELUS Health MyCare has empowered Canadians and their families to access many important features and continues to innovate with improved access and functionality including:

• New Clinics: Recently, TELUS Health MyCare opened two digital-first public clinics in Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia. Patients who live nearby now have the option to see doctors in person if they require an appointment following a virtual consultation. If they are without a regular family doctor, they can choose to have the TELUS Health MyCare clinic as their “medical home,” strengthening the continuity of their care. Plans are underway to open more TELUS Health MyCare clinics across Canada.
  
  
• Mental Health and Dietitians: To help users address mental and nutritional health concerns TELUS Health MyCare has broadened services beyond primary care to include access to licensed mental health counsellors and dietitians for a more proactive, holistic approach to managing their overall health.
  
  
• Enabling proactive health: TELUS Health has added new features to the app including the Healthcheck digital assessment tool which allows patients to proactively manage their health by better understanding their overall well-being, potential risk factors for illnesses, and steps they can take to help reduce those risks. Monitor is also a new tool that allows users to sync data from activity trackers, wearables, and other health apps to help track mood and activity to gain valuable insights on maintaining optimal health, all in one place.
  

“The adoption of virtual care has skyrocketed since the onset of COVID-19 and has become a complementary tool within our public healthcare system to care for Canadians and their families,” said Dr. Keir Peterson, Chief Medical Officer, TELUS Health MyCare. “According to research by Canada Health Infoway, before the pandemic only four per cent of primary care visits in Canada were conducted virtually. This number now sits at 60 per cent. As we move into a post-pandemic world, services like TELUS Health MyCare will continue to help fill the gaps for the estimated 4.6 million Canadians without access to a family physician, and people living in rural and remote areas with limited resources, and those seeking after-hours care.”

By the Numbers

• Every 30 seconds someone in Canada downloads the TELUS Health MyCare app
  
  • Every 90 seconds a patient sees a doctor via the app
• A recent survey of TELUS Health MyCare users who completed a virtual consultation with a local physician or allied healthcare professional found:
  
  • 94 per cent agreed the service addressed their concern;
  • 96 per cent said they felt cared for by the physician; and
  • 96 per cent said they are likely to recommend the service to others.
• 60 per cent of patients do not have a family doctor
• 15 per cent of consultations are related to mental health
• 77 per cent of users are between the ages of 20-49
  

Privacy by Design

TELUS Health is committed to building privacy safeguards into every one of its products and services, and we take special care when it comes to personal health information. Operating under the highest standards for security by design, TELUS Health MyCare stores all patient medical records in Canada in compliance with federal and provincial privacy legislation and securely transmits information using encryption mechanisms that meet or even exceed, the highest industry-recognized standards. The TELUS Health MyCare service will now fall under the robust TELUS Privacy Management Program Framework, with a new TELUS Health MyCare Privacy Commitment that describes the specifics of how we protect individual privacy and handle data in TELUS Health MyCare.

The TELUS Health MyCare app is available across the country in English and French as a free download for iOS or Android devices. For more information on TELUS Health MyCare, please visit: telus.com/MyCare.

About TELUS Health
TELUS Health is a leader in digital health technology, providing virtual care, home health monitoring, electronic medical and health records, benefits and pharmacy management, and personal emergency response services. By leveraging the power of technology to deliver connected solutions and services, TELUS Health is improving access to care and revolutionizing the flow of information while facilitating collaboration, efficiency, and productivity for physicians, pharmacists, health authorities, allied healthcare professionals, insurers, employers, and citizens, to progress its vision of transforming healthcare and empowering people to live healthier lives.

Through the TELUS Health Care Centres, teams of renowned and passionate healthcare professionals deliver best-in-class patient-centric care to thousands of Canadian employers, professionals, and families in more than 15 medical clinics located across the country.

For more information please visit: www.telushealth.com.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Jill Yetman
TELUS Public Relations
416-992-2639
[email protected]

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