Durham company ready to go national following merger

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Amid explosive new demand for its products, a Triangle telemedicine firm is merging with a Georgia company in order to scale its business nationally.

RelyMD – a Durham company primarily staffed by Wake Emergency Physicians – will join Georgia-based MYidealDOCTOR, another telemedicine company.

According to RelyMD CEO David Levin, the merger will mean both companies will operate underneath the management team of RelyMD out of its Durham headquarters while retaining their individual brands. MYidealDOCTOR will be designated as a “RelyMD solutions company,” according to Levin.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed by either company.

Levin says the merger came from an existing desire for RelyMD to begin expanding out of the region as it looks to build a national presence.

“As we were thinking about our growth plans and our expansion plans, we really wanted to build out a nationwide network of existing community providers,” he said. “Providers who were already in their community but also wanted to expand the services to include telemedicine.”

Specifically, Levin said that the Georgia company is linked to ApolloMD – one of the nation’s largest hospital services companies – and with the merger comes a strategic partnership.

Levin said with that partnership and the new technology and capabilities brought on with the merger, RelyMD can create a “national platform” and “expand our provider network from a regional network to a national network.”

The move also comes at a time of explosive growth for the company. Prior to Covid-19, Levin said they were witnessing a ” slow, methodical growth” of telemedicine, but that has changed dramatically since the pandemic struck.

Levin said RelyMD’s business grew nearly five-fold in just the first weeks of the crisis as stay-at-home orders went into effect, and he expects much of the new business to remain now that patients and providers have become accustom to the platform.

RelyMD cites a recent a survey by Sage Growth Partner (SGP) and Black Book Market Research showing that while just 25 percent of consumers had used telemedicine prior to the pandemic, 59 percent now report they are more likely to use the services. And 33 percent report they would leave their physician for a provider that did offer tele-access.

Original Article Source: Triangle Business Journal