Telefonica Digital has taken a controlling interest in Axismed, Brazil’s largest chronic care management company. The exact size of Telefonica’s stake and the price paid were not disclosed.

The mobile operator said the deal would increase its presence in Brazil’s emerging mobile health market. The deal means it can better target the kind of companies – private healthcare providers and corporate customers – who are Axismed’s customers.

In the future, the operator will also offer services to the subscribers of Vivo, the mobile operator in which Telefonica holds a majority stake.

Axismed’s service monitors more than 180,000 patients across Brazil. With Telefonica’s support, the health company can contact its patients through mobile applications, internet, SMS, web and videoconferencing.

Within a year, the aim is for medical data to be transmitted from Axismed’s patients through connected devices in their homes, measuring glucose levels, blood pressure and other indicators.

In the next stage, the two companies will expand to countries outside Brazil and also look at opportunities to sell services to Vivo’s subscribers.

Brazil is one of four markets where Telefonica has high hopes for mobile health. The other market in the region where it is looking for such services to take off is Chile.

In Europe, the UK and Spain are the two markets where it is optimistic about the take-up of such services. And the kind of remote monitoring service it envisages developing with Axismed is where it hopes to generate revenue in the future.