RxWiki, a consumer education and ratings platform for independent retail pharmacies, has merged with TeleManager Technologies, provider of communication technology for pharmacies, health systems, pharmaceutical companies and drug distributors. The new company has been branded Digital Pharmacist.
The merged entity will be run from RxWiki’s home base of Austin, Texas, but also will maintain TeleManager’s operations in Newark, New Jersey. Chris Loughlin, head of RxWiki, has been named CEO of Digital Pharmacist. Loughlin, ex-CEO of media company Travelzoo, joined RxWiki in February 2016.
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TeleManager’s cofounders, Val Gurovich and Paul Kobylevsky, will remain on board, with Gurovich serving as president of Digital Pharmacist’s Communication Solutions division — the new name for the TeleManager Technologies business. Kobylevsky is now chief architect for the combined firm.
RxWiki had been a customer of TeleManager for about six months, using the latter’s platform to connect patients to pharmacies, and the two legacy companies did not have much overlap.
“It quickly became apparent that a merger made sense,” Loughlin said. “It was just the perfect fit to build this telecommunications company,” he continued.
“We’ll be integrating some products, but it’s rather now a complementary project,” Loughlin added.
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Among other things, the Communications Solutions segment automates telephone prescription refills for 5,500 pharmacies nationwide. The technology has been integrated with 53 different pharmacy information systems, according to Digital Pharmacist.
The former RxWiki connects 4 million patients per month to their pharmacies and to drug information to help with medication adherence.
“With their strong focus on digital patient adherence solutions and our deep experience in delivering high-quality, highly secure communication systems for patients and pharmacy, we believe we can offer our clients a more comprehensive solution,” Gurevich said in a statement.
By adding the medication adherence component to pharmacy connectivity, Digital Pharmacist expects to help pharmacies reduce direct insurance reimbursement fees — network access charges levied by insurers and pharmacy benefit managers. “We can help pharmacies achieve goals [set by payers] and ultimately claw back their DIR fees,” Loughlin said.
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