- Cybersecurity business achieved record revenue and EBITDA
since being acquired by WELL Health.
- Iain Paterson has been
appointed to the position of WELL's Chief Information Security
Officer, from his prior role as CEO of Cycura Data Protection
Services.
- Peter Giannoulis, Founder and
CEO of Cycura's wholly owned Source 44 subsidiary will now lead
combined operations and is expanding the company's capabilities as
the need for data protection grows in the healthcare
industry.
- Founder and CEO, Hamed
Shahbazi provides details on family, tax and estate planning
related to WELL shares.
VANCOUVER, BC, July 8, 2022
/CNW/ - WELL Health Technologies Corp. (TSX: WELL) (OTCQX: WHTCF)
(the "Company" or "WELL") — a practitioner focused
digital health company that is positively impacting health outcomes
by leveraging technology to empower healthcare practitioners and
their patients globally, is pleased to provide a business update on
its cybersecurity business.
WELL's wholly owned cybersecurity businesses, Cycura and Source
44, achieved record revenue in Q2-2022, an increase of 240%
compared to the same period a year ago. This growth has been
driven by an increasing customer base and by an expansion of
services offered to its customers. Both factors are driven by the
increased need and complexity of cybersecurity in data-sensitive
industries like healthcare.
"We at WELL believe cybersecurity and patient data protection is
one of our top priorities" said Amir
Javidan, Chief Operating Officer of WELL. "WELL and its
subsidiaries have made significant investments in this area, and we
look forward to providing more Canadian healthcare practitioners
with the country's most comprehensive security solution for
outpatient medical clinics."
Appointment of Chief Information
Security Officer and New CEO of Cycura
WELL also announces the appointment of Iain Paterson to the position of Chief
Information Security Officer of WELL. Iain
Paterson was previously the CEO of Cycura which was acquired
by WELL in August 2020. Prior to
Cycura, Iain worked under the office of the CISO at
eHealth Ontario, which houses the healthcare records
of 13M Ontario citizens and acts as the main data
share for most of Ontario's hospitals. Prior to that Iain
was the Information Security Officer for Trillium Health Partners,
one of the largest hospitals in Canada.
Mr. Paterson commented, "I am delighted to lead WELL's
considerable and comprehensive information security efforts. We
take cybersecurity protection and patient data privacy very
seriously across all our businesses and the protection of data
security is one of WELL's top priorities as a business as reflected
in the Company's recently released ESG report."
Peter Giannoulis, the Founder and
CEO of Source 44, which was acquired by WELL in Dec 2020, has been appointed the new CEO of
Cycura. Mr. Giannoulis founded Source 44 thirteen years ago and
grew it into one of Canada's
prominent providers of cybersecurity products and services. Source
44 has been a strong performer in WELL's portfolio and has
continued to grow.
Mr. Giannoulis commented, "I am excited to expand my
responsibilities and lead Cycura's overall business activities. We
have an outstanding opportunity to make a positive impact on the
healthcare industry at a sensitive time where we believe there is a
lot of patient data at risk in clinics across the country."
Expanding Our Capabilities as the
Need for Data Protection Grows
Canadian healthcare is becoming an increasingly large target for
cyber attacks, with 48% of all security breaches in Canada in 2021 directed at healthcare, a 37%
increase from 2020. WELL has seen an increasing number of its
customers who are experiencing cyber attacks. While compliant EMR
systems generally do a decent job protecting patient data, other
software or hardware being used in a clinical environment may not
be protected to the same degree. In response, WELL is
expanding its Incident Response offering and is actively working
with healthcare clinics to implement enterprise-grade cybersecurity
solutions through SecureSolutionsNow, a new offering that is
assisting healthcare providers across Canada and the USA in protecting personal health information.
For more information, please visit securesolutionsnow.com.
Cycura is now also providing customers with both 'hacker' and
'defender' capabilities, giving them the full spectrum of cyber
capabilities for customers of all sizes. This offering can also be
fully integrated with the rest of WELL's practitioner enablement
platforms.
Family, Tax and Estate Planning by
Founder and CEO
Hamed Shahbazi, WELL's Founder,
Chairman and CEO today announced that he has indirectly transferred
through Impactreneur Capital Corp., a company controlled by him, 6
million WELL shares to a family trust for family, tax, and estate
planning purposes. The transferred shares represent approximately
27.8% of the total WELL securities owned directly or indirectly by
Mr. Shahbazi. Mr. Shahbazi is neither a beneficiary nor trustee of
the family trust. Also, as part of his overall tax and estate
planning strategy, Mr. Shahbazi exercised 1.7 million stock options
that were set to expire in the next 12 months.
Hamed Shahbazi
commented, "WELL's business is stronger than it's ever been.
Despite the current macro-economic conditions our business remains
resilient. Upon much consultation with advisors, I
have transferred a portion of my WELL shares to a family trust
and exercised my expiring stock options strictly for estate and tax
planning purposes. I remain one of the largest single shareholders
of the Company and continue to be highly aligned for WELL's
continued value creation journey."
WELL HEALTH TECHNOLOGIES
CORP.
Per: "Hamed
Shahbazi"
Hamed Shahbazi
Chief Executive Officer, Chairman and Director
About WELL Health Technologies
Corp.
WELL is a practitioner focused digital health company whose
overarching objective is to positively impact health outcomes to
empower and support healthcare practitioners and their patients.
WELL has built an innovative practitioner enablement platform that
includes comprehensive end to end practice management tools
inclusive of virtual care and digital patient engagement
capabilities as well as Electronic Medical Records (EMR), Revenue
Cycle Management (RCM) and data protection services. WELL uses this
platform to power healthcare practitioners both inside and outside
of WELL's own omni-channel patient services offerings. As such,
WELL owns and operates Canada's
largest network of outpatient medical clinics serving primary and
specialized healthcare services and is the provider of a leading
multi-national, multi-disciplinary telehealth offering. WELL is
publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol
"WELL" and trades on the OTCQX under the symbol
"WHTCF". To learn more about the Company, please
visit: www.well.company.
Forward-Looking
Information
This news release may contain "Forward-Looking Information"
within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws,
including, without limitation: WELL's founder, director, and CEO's
intentions. Forward-Looking Information is based upon a number of
estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by
management, are inherently subject to significant business,
economic and competitive uncertainties, and contingencies.
Forward-Looking Information generally can be identified by the use
of forward-looking words such as "may", "should", "will", "could",
"intend", "estimate", "plan", "anticipate", "expect", "believe" or
"continue", or the negative thereof or similar variations.
Forward-Looking Information involves known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors that may cause future results,
performance, or achievements to be materially different from the
estimated future results, performance or achievements expressed or
implied by such Forward Looking Information and, which are not
guarantees of future performance. WELL's statements expressed or
implied by Forward Looking Information are subject to a number of
risks, uncertainties, and conditions, many of which are outside of
WELL 's control, and undue reliance should not be placed on such
statements. Forward-Looking is Information qualified in its
entirety by inherent risks and uncertainties, including: direct and
indirect material adverse effects from the COVID-19 pandemic;
adverse market conditions; risks inherent in the primary healthcare
sector in general; regulatory and legislative changes; that future
results may vary from historical results; inability to obtain any
requisite future financing on suitable terms; any inability to
realize the expected benefits and synergies of acquisitions; that
market competition may affect the business, results and financial
condition of WELL and other risk factors identified in documents
filed by WELL under its profile at www.sedar.com, including its
most recent Annual Information Form. Except as required by
securities law, WELL does not assume any obligation to update or
revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new
information, events or otherwise.
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SOURCE WELL Health Technologies Corp.