Edge Healthcare Partners is pleased to announce that SleepMed, Inc. (“SleepMed” or the “Company”), the nation’s largest private sleep diagnostics and therapy provider, and Watermark Medical, Inc. (“Watermark”), the leading home sleep technology services company for the diagnosis and treatment of sleep breathing disorders in the United States, have merged to form a comprehensive provider of integrated sleep care management. Operating under the SleepMed name, the combined company is uniquely poised to address the sleep issues affecting millions of Americans and establish the first national high performing sleep health system. The transaction closed on March 27, 2013. No financial terms were disclosed. Edge Healthcare Partners served as the exclusive financial advisor to SleepMed.
Through its combined current annual patient population of over 200,000 patients and its estimated 15,000 independent physician and hospital network partners, the new SleepMed will offer sleep services (i.e. patient engagement integration tools and patient ”wellness“ products) focused on improving quality sleep via an integrated health-systems company that delivers a continuum of sleep care. As sleep health is a part of a patient’s overall health profile, the new SleepMed will embrace and support ”Community Sleep Management”. This encourages local expertise, diagnostic pathways and appropriate therapy coordinated by SleepMed. SleepMed University’s educational and clinical activities will advance sleep awareness to physicians, employers, other providers and the general population throughout these healthcare ”Sleep Communities”.
It is estimated that approximately 40 million Americans suffer from sleep breathing disorders, and recent estimates show that one in five Americans sleep less than six hours per night. If sleep deprivation is ongoing and persistent, it can lead to an increased risk for serious, chronic health problems, such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease. For example, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a life-threatening condition in which breathing stops and then restarts re-currently during sleep, affects approximately 20 million Americans, but is often undiagnosed and untreated. The sleep disorder management industry is estimated to be a $24 billion a year industry.
SleepMed was formed in December 1999 through the merger of Sleep Disorder Centers of America (SDCA), based in Columbia, SC, and DigiTrace Care Services, Inc. (DCSI), based in Boston, MA. SDCA was founded in 1994 by David Lewis and Dr. Richard Bogan, who has board certifications in sleep medicine, pulmonary medicine, critical care medicine and internal medicine.
Watermark Medical, Inc. is a privately held healthcare information technology company formed in 2008 focused on improving the clinical outcomes of patients with chronic diseases. Watermark pioneered cloud-based home sleep testing for obstructive sleep apnea by allowing primary care physicians to become the point of care for diagnostic testing. Its co-founders have a track record of building successful information technology companies and sales channels for the healthcare services sector. Watermark has a national direct sales force of more than 25 sales representatives covering all 50 states and approximately 2,000 distribution sales representatives.
About Edge Healthcare Partners
Edge Healthcare Partners is an independent Atlanta based investment banking firm focused on providing merger and acquisition services to leading private and public healthcare companies and private equity firms. Edge Healthcare Partners also assists companies with raising capital for growth, acquisitions, recapitalizations, going-private and management buy-out transactions The professionals of Edge Healthcare Partners have over 65 years of collective investment banking experience and have completed more than 100 transactions across the entire spectrum of healthcare including healthcare services, healthcare information technology, distribution and life sciences. Securities are offered through Edge Corporate Finance, Member FINRA and SIPC. For more information, visit https://www.edgehcp.com/.
