Telus buys Wolf Medical

wireless • Telus, Canada’s third-largest wireless company, has bought an electronic medical records company as it strengthens its position in the country’s health care sector.

The Vancouver-based telecom firm announced the acquisition of Wolf Medical Systems on Thursday, without disclosing the financial terms of the deal.

Telus is pushing for doctors and patients to make greater use of smartphones and tablet computers to manage health records and enable remote monitoring.

Wolf Medical founder Brendan Byrne will lead Telus’s Physician Solutions unit, Telus said.

The company said in October 2010 that it was positioning to play a major role in Canada’s health care industry. At that time, the company’s chief executive, Darren Entwistle, said Telus has invested $800 million over three years in health care-related technology.

He said Canada lagged global peers in electronic record keeping, adding that he expected health care spending to reach $250 billion by 2020.