Healthcare PR specialist ReviveHealth has acquired Interval, a 19-year-old, digital-savvy healthcare marketing firm based in Minneapolis.

chris bevoloBrandon Edwards, CEO of Nashville-based Revive, called the deal, his five-year-old firm's first acquisition, a key step in its evolution to be an "agency of the future" with a bead on "where healthcare is headed with an outside perspective that breaks outmoded, traditional thinking." It also gives Revive a Midwest office in a key healthcare corridor, its third outpost alongside Nashville and Santa Barbara, Calif.

Interval, which was founded in 1995 by Chris Bevolo but narrowed to focus on healthcare in 2002, has worked with clients like Brookings Health System, Banner Health, Penn State Hershey Medical Center, and Allegiance Health, among scores of others.

The two firms said they've talked about a merger and worked together over the past year.

Edwards said Revive's staff rises to 45 – it had 24 at the close of 2013 with $5.3M in revenues. Interval founder and president Bevolo becomes EVP of consumer marketing at ReviveHealth, while principal Adam Meyer takes a VP role and account manager Jackie Olson is account supervisor as the Internal name is retired.

Bevolo, who produces the "Arrogant Healthcare Marketing Bastards" podcast, wrote "Joe Public Doesn't Care About Your Hospital" (RockBench 2011) and "A Marketer's Guide to Measuring Results" (2010).