PRIME Education (“Prime”), headquartered in Tamarac, Florida, a nationally recognized health care education company, and pioneer in health care quality improvement and continuing education (“CE”), has partnered with DW Healthcare Partners (“DWHP”), a healthcare-focused private equity firm.

With a 22-year history of providing interprofessional continuing education (“IPCE”) across federal, military/VA, payer, provider, academic and other settings, PRIME engages clinicians, patients, and health care leaders in collaborative learning and behavioral change to improve coordination of care and health outcomes. Additionally, PRIME advances continuous professional development among health care providers through ten years of linking graduate medical education (“GME”) courses with IPCE, focusing on core competencies mandated for physicians-in-training by the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education. PRIME’s impact has been published and presented in a multitude of peer-reviewed medical journals and national conferences, positioning PRIME as the leading health care education provider advancing the science of learning and behavior change.

“The opportunity to partner with DWHP supports PRIME’s mission to achieve and sustain measurable change in health outcomes,” noted Kathleen Moreo, Founder and CEO of PRIME. “Our goal is to continue impacting public health priorities and national health care initiatives through our learning solutions. We are energized by the vast expertise of the DWHP management team which will assist us in these critically important objectives.”

DWHP invests in companies on the leading-edge of essential health care delivery services. These include quality management services in rehabilitation transitions-of-care (“ToC”) across acute care hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and continuing care programs, as well as transition-to-home services. As part of its many ToC educational programs, PRIME partners with the National Transitions of Care Coalition to improve systems’ and providers’ care coordination under MACRA health care reform. Other synergistic areas of expertise by DWHP and PRIME include training with addiction treatment centers, and health, safety and emergency care training.

Jay Benear, MD, Founder and Managing Director of DWHP, is a medical oncologist who has served in various leadership roles with US Oncology. “When I was at US Oncology,” Jay stated, “we worked hard to create technology information exchanges. We found early adopters, but struggled getting established clinicians to use these systems. One of the interesting aspects of PRIME is its respect and adaptability for learning-preferences – the dichotomy between traditional and tech-driven learning environments. PRIME is an educational company, but it is really a learning and change catalyst.” Andrew Carragher, Founder and Managing Director of DWHP, commented, “PRIME’s use of practice data for health care improvement and applied educational innovation in systems-based care are fundamental game-changers, as proven again and again through their results published in the literature. We look forward to contributing to PRIME’s continued growth and improving outcomes for patients, families, clinicians, and communities.”

Philpott Ball & Werner, LLC (“PB&W”) served as investment banker to Prime. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. For more information about this transaction, please contact PB&W Director Matthew Carpenter at mcarpenter@pbandw.com.