Toronto – TELUS Health today announced it has acquired Sprout Wellness Solutions, a holistic digital health and wellness solution designed to educate, engage and inspire people to improve their health through behaviour change. The solution will be available as part of the TELUS Health suite of services for Canadian employers to empower their employees, through their benefits plan, to live healthier lives.

“We know preventative health practices can play a major role in reducing one’s chances of developing several chronic diseases, and services that allow users to be proactive about their health are an important component of an effective care plan,” said Daniel Martz, vice president, Virtual Care, TELUS Health. “For more than a decade, Sprout has contributed to improving people’s health and wellness and we are pleased to add it to our full suite of virtual health services to continue helping businesses support the health and wellness of every employee.”

Built using machine learning and cognitive behavioural science, the Sprout platform encourages, measures, and rewards healthy behaviours through:

• Real-time health risk assessment;

• Wearable device integrations and activity tracking;

• Engaging health and wellness content;

• Dynamic goals, gamified challenges, and more.

As an early investor in Sprout since 2015, TELUS recognized the positive influence the innovative health solution had on overall health and wellness, helping employees to shift their mindset to more proactively focus on improving their overall health and happiness.

As organizations increasingly seek to embrace more digital well-being empowerment tools for their team members, this acquisition allows TELUS Health to deliver a broader suite of options to complement its established services such as virtual care, virtual pharmacy, and medical and mental health clinics to support Canada’s workforce at every step of their health journey.

“More than ever, employers are being called on to play a larger role in supporting the health of their employees and this starts with a benefits plan offering that reflects the needs of today's workforce,” added Martz. “Sprout gives employees another way to take better care of their physical and mental health and we’re excited to integrate the platform into our services to help team members feel even more empowered, supported, engaged, and productive.”

Sprout will continue to be available for all its current customers. Over the coming months, TELUS Health will integrate Sprout Wellness Solutions into its Virtual Care service, making it available as a value-added solution to clients nationally in English and French.

Employers who are interested in learning more about how Sprout can improve the health and well-being of their employees by being added to their benefits plans can request information here.