NEWS - FDA, WebMD announce partnership

[Guest guest]

FDA, WebMD Announce Partnership

from WebMD — a health information Web site for patients

J. DeNoon

December 4, 2008 — The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and WebMD

yesterday announced the first-ever partnership between a U.S. public

health agency and a private health-information provider. (Medscape is

a wholly owned subsidiary of WebMD Health Corp.)

The partnership will enhance the FDA's ability to get crucial

information to the American public, FDA Commissioner von

Eschenbach, MD, said in a news conference.

" This is going to enable the FDA bringing to millions of people timely

product-safety alerts and important health information, " von

Eschenbach said. " And it will let us do this in a way that is making

use of innovative technologies and the increasing use of the web and

Internet as a source of providing information to the public. "

The FDA's information will appear in clearly marked pages on the WebMD

web site that are free of advertising. FDA information will also

appear in WebMD the Magazine. And the FDA web site will link directly

to WebMD content.

Why did FDA pick WebMD as its first partner? Von Eschenbach pointed to

WebMD's nearly 50 million unique visitors per month and to WebMD the

Magazine's 9 million print readers.

*******************************************************

Read the full article here:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/584736

Not an MD