July 19, 1999. Composed of Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and the surrounding region, North Carolina's Research Triangle area is known for the intense rivalry among its three universities. Whether there's an economy to be had by that sort of integration is yet to be seen. The entrance of Duke and UNC is spurring the Raleigh market's evolution. The Red Sea is dividing, pretty much.
Wake County is where the population is.
So whoever controls Wake County is going to control the majority of the market share. Essentially, Raleigh is a three-hospital city. WakeMed, a tertiary care center formerly run by Wake County, is now a private, nonprofit hospital. The hospital system jointly owns an HMO with UNC and has partnered for years with the UNC School of Medicine to train medical students. Traditionally, physicians have held privileges at all the Raleigh hospitals, but that changed for some as explosive population growth in recent years has increased traffic, particularly on the beltline that wraps around the city.