Vancouver Magazine, May/June 2019

Page 19

L I F E B OAT S / R I S I N G F R O M T H E A S H E S / G E T T I N G S TO N E D I N FA I R V I E W

VA N M AG .C O M/C I T Y

City

The Doctor Is In

Telus is proving to be a lot more than your run-of-the-mill mobile service provider. It’s out to change the health-care industry. by

Paul Webster Suharu Ogawa

illustration by

when darren entwistle, president of Vancouver-based Telus Inc., took the microphone at a press conference in Thornton Park in the Downtown Eastside last fall, onlookers could easily have confused him for a politician. Entwistle, who speaks with the intensity of an embattled platoon commander, has long called for a revolution in Canadian health care. Under his leadership, Telus—which has 55,000 employees and is B.C.’s biggest company—has invested $2.5 billion in a widening array of health-related businesses. These investments have given the company a pivotal presence serving more than 20,000 doctor’s offices across Canada. Meanwhile, to further cement the company’s role within Canada’s $250-billion health-care industry, Telus has been tasked by the federal government with building a long-overdue national electronic network for drug prescriptions that Ottawa says

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