Two companies that provide digital healthcare services to independent pharmacists—and the consumers who use them to get a prescription filled online—have merged.

RxWiki Inc., an Austin, Texas-based company that enables consumers to find, ask, rate and share prescription information, read health news and research financial assistance programs, has merged with Telemanager Technologies Inc., a Newark, N.J., provider of interactive voice response and telecommunications services, to form a new company: Digital Pharmacist Inc.

Terms of the deal weren’t released, but the newly merged company does have an established base to build on, says CEO Chris Loughlin. Digital Pharmacist will provide digital healthcare services on one soon-to-be integrated platform to about 5,500 pharmacy locations, pharmacy wholesalers, health systems and other pharmacy-related companies. The Digital Pharmacist platform also will serve about 4 million patients per month and integrates with about 53 pharmacy systems.

Digital Pharmacist’s platform allows patients and pharmacies to communicate via telephone, web, mobile device or text message. Patients use the Digital Pharmacist to refill prescriptions online, schedule reminders to take medications, write reviews, learn about medicals conditions or medications through interactive adherence tools, and ask their pharmacist questions, the company says. In medicine, adherence describes the degree to which a patient correctly follows medical advice.

Under the newly merged company, Telemanager founders Val Gurovich and Paul Kobylevsky will serve as chief architect and president of the communications solutions business unit. Both Gurovich and Kobylevsky will report to Loughlin.

In January and before the merger RxWiki signed a preferred partner marketing agreement with American Associated Pharmacies, a trade association representing more than 2,200 independent pharmacies. “Competing digitally with the large franchises is critical to the future success of our members,” says American Associated Pharmacies vice president of preferred partners Tracie Heyrman. “Working with RxWiki ensures that our members have access to digital marketing programs available like adherence alerts and patient reviews, which drive adherence and give pharmacists valuable patient feedback.”

Independent pharmacists need to deliver more digital and mobile health alternatives, Loughlin says. A recent Digital Pharmacist analysis of 716 electronic prescription refills revealed that 40% of patients who request a digital refill do so outside of 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. business hours, including 20% of patients who order their web or mobile prescription refill from their community pharmacist after 9:00 p.m.