Kristine Owram, THE CANADIAN PRESS

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TORONTO - Telus Corp. (TSX:T) plans to invest $100 million over three years in its health-care technology business to build and run networks sharing medical records and other information.

Telecom analyst Carmi Levy of AR Communications described the move Tuesday as a "master stroke" for Canada's second-largest telecommunications company, which operates in an increasingly competitive telecom industry.

"The waters are turbulent and they're only going to become more so in telecom in the years to come," said Levy.

"(Telus) is leveraging its core competencies as a company that delivers technology solutions into a market sector that is much less competitive at this point in time and much more capable of delivering high-margin revenues over a sustained period of time."

Telus Health Solutions, with 1,500 employees, is based on Emergis, the Montreal electronic commerce company Telus acquired early this year.

The Health Solutions unit is headed by Francois Cote, who joined Telus as CEO of Emergis.

With the $763-million purchase of Emergis - a major provider of software to manage medical records, drug bills and other health-care data - Telus moved aggressively to become a big player in health-care technology, which it regards as a major growth area as governments try to control medical costs.

Joe Natale, president of Telus Business Solutions, which oversees the health business, described the health-care technology sector as "a market that's about to take off."

"If you look at the Canadian business market, health care is a market industry that is in significant need and there's lots of opportunity in it," Natale said in an interview.

"We as Canadians spend $146 billion on health care across Canada, and with the aging population and funding constraints and the rest, that number's under great pressure."

He added that technology will both save the health-care sector money and make it more productive and less prone to mistakes.

"I think it's a natural evolution of our business. I don't think we're a cell phone company anymore, I think we're a technology company," he said.

"Taking those ideas that the consumer has grown dependent on and applying them to solve a problem for society in health care is a very powerful thing to do."

The U.S. government is considering legislation to mandate the creation of electronic health records for all Americans, and Canada will likely follow suit, according to Levy.

"So goes the U.S., eventually so goes Canada, and at some point we will see a consolidated coast-to-coast move toward a specific EHR standard," he said.

"When that happens, Telus's purchase of Emergis, as well as the $100-million investment in building out that capability and that subsidiary, will be seen as moves with great foresight."

In Tuesday trading on the TSX, Telus shares rose 26 cents to $38.24.