WebMD
 | |
| Company type | Public (Nasdaq: WBMD) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2005 |
| Headquarters | New York, New York, United States |
| Products | Health Information Services |
Number of employees | 1,400 (2009) |
| Website | http://www.webmd.com/ |
WebMD (Nasdaq: WBMD) is an American provider of health information services. It was founded in 1996 as Healthscape, later Healtheon, and then acquired WebMD in 1999 to form Healtheon/WebMD. The name was later shortened to WebMD.
Services
It is primarily known for its public Internet site, which has information regarding health and health care, including a symptom checklist, pharmacy information, "drugs information", blogs of physicians with specific topics and a place to store personal medical information.[1] The site was reported to have received over 17.1 million average monthly unique visitors in Q1 2007[2] and is the leading health portal in the United States.[3] The site receives information from accredited individuals[citation needed] and is reviewed by a medical review board consisting of four physicians to ensure accuracy.
WebMD also offers services to physicians and private clients. For example, they publish WebMD the Magazine, a patient-directed publication distributed bimonthly to 85 percent of physician waiting rooms.[4] Medscape is a professional portal for physicians with 30 medical specialty areas and over 30 physician discussion boards.
The organization is financed by third-party contributions and sponsorships.[5]
WebMD operates other health-related sites besides WebMD including MedicineNet, Medscape, RxList, eMedicine and eMedicineHealth. These sites provide similar services to those of WebMD. MedicineNet is an online media publishing company.[6] Medscape offers up-to-date information for physicians and other healthcare professionals.[7] RxList offers detailed information about pharmaceutical information on generic and name-brand drugs.[8] eMedicineHealth is a consumer site offering similar information to that of WebMD. It was first based on the site created for physicians and healthcare professionals called eMedicine.com.[9]
See also
References
- ^ "More turn to Internet for medical advice," WWAY News Channel 3, September 7, 2007
- ^ "WebMD Has Tremendous Growth Ahead," Seeking Alpha,September 04, 2007
- ^ comScore Media Metrix
- ^ "WebMD Corporation Launches Print Magazine," The Write News, April 22, 2005
- ^ Some of the sponsors have influence over the content on Web.MD."Web sites for medical information," News and Observer, September 13, 2007
- ^ About Us - Health and Medical Information Produced by Doctors - MedicineNet.com
- ^ Medscape - About Us
- ^ RxList - The Internet Drug Index for prescription drugs and medications
- ^ About Us - Overview - eMedicineHealth - Consumer First Aid and Health Information
External links
- WebMD (corporate website)
- WebMD Health (consumer website)
- Medscape (physician website)
- MedicineNet (MedicineNet website)
- RxList (drugs and medications website)
- eMedicineHealth (consumer first aid and health information website)
- Boots WebMD (UK consumer website)
- Express Medical Licensing