WebMD

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WebMD Health Corp.
Public (NASDAQ: WBMD)
Founded 1996 (1996)
Headquarters New York City, USA
Key people
 David J. Schlanger
(CEO)[1]
Steven L. Zatz, M.D.
(President)[1]
Products Health information services
Number of employees
 1,400 (2009)
Slogan Better Information. Better Health.
Website www.webmd.com

WebMD is an American corporation that provides health news, advice, and expertise. It was founded in 1996 by Jim Clark and Pavan Nigam as Healthscape, later Healtheon, and then it acquired WebMD in 1999 from Robert Draughon to form Healtheon/WebMD. Later, the name was shortened to WebMD.

Traffic

WebMD is primarily known for its public website, which has information regarding health and health care, including a symptom checklist, pharmacy information, drugs information, blogs of physicians with specific topics, and providing a place to store personal medical information.[2][not in citation given]

In the first quarter of 2007, WebMD had the highest number of unique page visits compared to other leading private and government healthcare websites.[3] By February 2011, WebMD’s network of sites was reaching an average of 86.4 million visitors per month[4] and it is the leading health portal in the United States.[3]

As of February 2014, WebMD has recorded an average of 156 million unique visitors per month and 3.17 billion page views per quarter.[5]

Accreditation

URAC, the Utilization Review Accreditation Commission, has accredited WebMD’s operations continuously since 2001 regarding everything from proper disclosures and health content to security and privacy.[6]

Revenues

In 2013, the Chicago Tribune reported that WebMD, "has struggled with a fall in advertising revenue with pharmaceutical companies slashing marketing budgets as several blockbuster drugs go off patent." In response, WebMD began investing in changes to its site the company hopes will entice users who use its site seeking specific information, to linger on the site reviewing other material.[7]

Business model

WebMD is financed by advertising, third-party contributions, and sponsors.[8]

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.[9] Medscape is a professional portal for physicians with 30 medical specialty areas and more than 30 physician discussion boards. WebMD Health Services provides private health management programs and benefit decision-support portals to employers and health plans.

The WebMD Health Network operates WebMD Health and other health-related sites including: Medscape, MedicineNet, eMedicine, eMedicineHealth, RxList, theheart.org, Medscape Education, and other-owned WebMD sites. These sites provide similar services to those of WebMD; MedicineNet is an online media publishing company.[10] Medscape offers up-to-date information for physicians and other healthcare professionals.[11] RxList offers detailed information about pharmaceutical information on generic and name-brand drugs.[12] 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.[13]

Criticism

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. The New York Times writer Virginia Hefferman criticized WebMD, saying that it biases readers toward using unnecessary drugs sold by their pharmaceutical sponsors, specifically, in cases for which the drug has been determined to be unnecessary.[14]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "WebMD Names David J. Schlanger as CEO,", August 12, 2013
  2. ↑ "More turn to Internet for medical advice," WWAY News Channel 3, September 7, 2007
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 comScore Media Metrix
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Some of the sponsors have influence over the content on WebMD."Web sites for medical information," News and Observer, September 13, 2007 Archived February 3, 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ↑ "WebMD Corporation Launches Print Magazine," The Write News, April 22, 2005
  10. ↑ About Us - Health and Medical Information Produced by Doctors - MedicineNet.com
  11. ↑ Medscape - About Us
  12. ↑ RxList - The Internet Drug Index for prescription drugs and medications
  13. ↑ About Us - Overview - eMedicineHealth - Consumer First Aid and Health Information
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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