| Type | Public (NASDAQ: WBMD) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2005 |
| Headquarters | New York, New York, United States |
| Products | Health Information Services |
| Employees | 1,400 (2009) |
| Website | WebMD.com |
WebMD (NASDAQ: WBMD) is an American corporation which provides health information services. It was founded in 1996 by Jim Clark and Pavan Nigam as Healthscape, later Healtheon, and then acquired WebMD in 1999 to form Healtheon/WebMD. The name was later shortened to WebMD.
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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] As of February 2011, WebMD’s network of sites reaches an average of 86.4 million visitors per month[2] and is the leading health portal in the United States.[3] WebMD maintains a dedicated staff of professional journalists and board certified physicians who produce the site’s content, and this content undergoes a rigorous medical review process to ensure it is credible and accurate.
URAC, the largest accrediting body for health care, has accredited WebMD’s operations in everything from proper disclosures and health content to security and privacy continuously since 2001.[4] A survey of toxicologists found that they found WebMD to be the most reliable source of news coverage on chemical risks, which are poorly covered by traditional news media, whose reporters tend to be ignorant of statistics and experimental design.[5]
WebMD is financed by advertising, third-party contributions and sponsorships.[6]
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.[7] Medscape is a professional portal for physicians with 30 medical specialty areas and over 30 physician discussion boards. WebMD Health Services provides private health management programs and benefit decision-support portals to employers and health plans.
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.[8] Medscape offers up-to-date information for physicians and other healthcare professionals.[9] RxList offers detailed information about pharmaceutical information on generic and name-brand drugs.[10] 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.[11]
Allegations have been made that WebMD biases readers towards using drugs sold by their pharmaceutical sponsors in cases in which the drug is unnecessary.[12]
In February 2010, WebMD's financial relationship with drug maker Eli Lilly was investigated by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa.