Medscape is a web resource for physicians and other health professionals. It features peer-reviewed original medical journal articles, CME (Continuing Medical Education), a customized version of the National Library of Medicine's MEDLINE database, daily medical news, major conference coverage, and drug information—including a drug database (Medscape Drug Reference, or MDR) and drug interaction checker. All content in Medscape is available free of charge for professionals and consumers alike, but registration is required.
Founded in New York's
Silicon AlleySilicon Alley is a nickname for an area with a concentration of Internet and new media companies in Manhattan, New York City. Originally, the term referred to the cluster of such companies extending from the Flatiron District down to SoHo and TriBeCa along the Broadway corridor, but as the location...
in May 1995 by SCP Communications, Inc. under the direction of
Peter FrishaufPeter Frishauf, born in 1949, is best known as the founder of Medscape, and SCP Communications, Inc. Frishauf is listed in Richard Saul Wurman’s March, 2002 book, Who’s Really Who as one of the 1,000 most creative people in the U.S....
, Medscape, Inc. had an IPO in September, 1999, trading on
NASDAQThe National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations, known as NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. It is the largest electronic screen-based equity securities trading market in the United States...
under the symbol MSCP (a tip-of-the-hat to its founding company, SCP, and to
NetscapeNetscape Communications was a US computer services company, best known for its web browser. The browser was once dominant in terms of usage share, but lost most of that share to Internet Explorer during the first browser war...
, whose symbol was NSCP). In May, 2000 Medscape merged with another public company, MedicaLogic, Inc. MedicaLogic filed for bankruptcy within 18 months, and sold Medscape to
WebMDWebMD Health Corporation is an American provider of health information services. It is primarily known for its public Internet site, which has information regarding health and health care, including a symptom checklist, pharmacy information, blogs of physicians with specific topics and a place to...
in December 2001.
In February, 1999, noted medical editor Dr. George D. Lundberg was hired as the editor-in-chief of Medscape. For 17 years prior to joining Medscape had served as Editor of the
Journal of the American Medical AssociationJAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association is an international peer-reviewed general medical journal, published 48 times per year by the American Medical Association...
. Lundberg served in this role until he was terminated by WebMD in 2008. On January 30, 2009 it was announced that no new articles would be accepted for the
Medscape Journal of Medicine, a Medscape journal Lundberg started in 1999.
A comparative analysis of Medscape Drug Reference versus Wikipedia concluded that drug monographs on Medscape Drug Reference were more comprehensive, but Wikipedia articles had more errors of omission. That conclusion caught the attention of mainstream media.
History
Medscape was birthed to solve a problem. The problem was that physicians were overwhelmed with information (already, way back on 1995), but straining to access and focus on the knowledge that would actually improve patient care. Medscape's co-founding team saw an opportunity to help solve this problem by:
- Collecting clinically-relevant medical literature from multiple medical publishers
- Filtering the literature from a "who should see this" persective, as opposed to the print "what can we fit in this issue" perspective
- Publishing the literature online in an easy-to-print, easy-to-read, everyone-can-access-it format, and
- Making it freely available to everyone
Medscape co-founders:
- Peter Frishauf
Peter Frishauf, born in 1949, is best known as the founder of Medscape, and SCP Communications, Inc. Frishauf is listed in Richard Saul Wurman’s March, 2002 book, Who’s Really Who as one of the 1,000 most creative people in the U.S....
- CEO
- Stephen E Smith - VP, Editorial, Site Design, Production, Product Development, and Marketing (currently head of Marketing at MDLinx
MDLinx is an internet-based service that offers physicians and other healthcare professionals a quick means of staying current with academic literature. The typical medical specialist would have to read 30 to 80 journal articles every day to keep up with the flow of information in his/her specialty...
, another leading physician portal)
- Vincent Keane - Site Design
- William Seitz - Technology
- Gib Veconi - Technology
- Tim Fallon - VP, Sales
External links