ABC Health Insider
The ABC News Medical Unit takes a critical look at the popular medical news of the day.
The Medical Unit is responsible for making recommendations to ABC News programs about coverage of medical stories, writing a daily "Medical Minute" that is sent to ABC-affiliated stations, producing a daily health program on ABC News Now, and overseeing the Health page of ABCNews.com.
RECENT POSTS
- How Can the Flu Kill You?
- Facing America's Doctor Disparity
- No End in Sight for Peanut Product Recalls
- Dr. Tim: Inside the White House Forum on Health Care
- Health Policy Experts Mull Impact of Wyeth Ruling
- Health Coverage for All -- Is It on the Way?
- This Is Your Brain on Envy
- Is a Virus Making You Obese? Fat Chance
- Video Gamers May Be 'Virtually' on Their Own
- Think Birth Control Pills Are Dangerous? Try Pregnancy
MONTHLY ARCHIVES
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| 31 |
« November 13, 2008 | Main | December 5, 2008 »
Government Health Agencies Teaming Up With Web Giants
December 03, 2008 1:24 PM
By BRIAN HARTMAN, ABC NewsThe FDA and WebMD announced a new online partnership today to steer raw government safety and health information to millions of wired Americans.
The agency's chief, Dr. Andrew Von Eschenbach, told reporters that the "very important partnership… will enable the FDA to bring millions of people timely product safety alerts and important health information."
Under the deal, the federal government will link to WebMD from the government's Web site and WebMD will link to the FDA.
Von Eschenbach says all content in the new section will be determined by an FDA communications council.
The FDA also will author at least three articles a year that will appear in WebMD The Magazine, which goes out to physicians' waiting rooms and has an audience of nearly 9 million people.
WebMD's president and CEO, Wayne Gattinella, says the new site will feature polls developed specifically for the FDA.
Feedback from the interactive surveys "will be very important" to help the agency learn how its messages are being perceived and make them more effective, Von Eschenbach said.
Von Eschenbach said the FDA partnership isn't exclusive to WebMD and the agency is talking to other media outlets about similar deals.
The FDA section on WebMD won't carry ads, though it will link to pages that do.
This isn't the first such arrangement. Google has been tracking the flu with CDC and WebMD has carried safety information for the FDA.
December 3, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (0)
