At Medscape, providing you with accurate, impartial, well-balanced health information has always been our priority. This editorial policy explains how we select and review the editorial content and tools you see on our site, how we distinguish advertising and sponsored content from editorial content, how financial or other influences from outside our company affect our Web site, and how you may contact us to ask questions or comment on our Web sites.
Reference to "Medscape" or "We" means Medscape, LLC, including any company that we control (for example a subsidiary that we own). Reference to "Web Site" means our internet website, Medscape.com.
We have a corporate site where you can read more about our company, obtain investor information, and find out how to contact us at www.wbmd.com.
This Editorial Policy applies to Medscape.com. You should read the editorial policy at each Web site that you visit after you leave Medscape.com. We are not responsible for how other Web sites handles editorial once you leave Medscape.com.
Minor changes to the policy may occur that will not affect the overall goals this policy is designed to achieve. When the policy changes in a way that significantly affects the way we handle editorial matters, we will clearly draw the attention of our users to the change. We will post policy changes on our Web sites in a timely manner.
We are committed to providing you with balanced, accurate health information. Our Web site employs editorial professionals who are responsible for content selection, development and maintenance process. We recognize the importance of maintaining a clear separation between our independent editorial content and any materials that are advertising or any content that may be influenced by our sponsors. We also have organized the operations of our Web Site to provide for appropriate separation of our education and promotion programs from an editorial perspective. We manage our educational activities for healthcare professionals, and individuals who work on educational matters are not involved with promotional activities.
All material on our Web Site that we present as our own is either created by us or is obtained from content providers whose editorial processes we have evaluated and find to be acceptable. Material we create is written either by our staff writers or by physicians and other healthcare professionals and health writers whom we commission. Our content has been evaluated by both in-house editors and CME content is reviewed for fair balance and whether learning objectives are met by the content. Sources for third party editorial content include government agencies, not-for-profit foundations, medical publishers, and for-profit companies that provide healthcare news and information. Our editorial staff reviews most content from outside sources for accuracy, balance, completeness and timeliness before we make it available on our sites. In the cases where a complete review is not possible, we rely on spot-checking and our previous evaluation of possible sources of information and of the editorial procedures used by the information provider (for example, in the case of our drug reference databases). In most cases, content we obtain from others has also been reviewed by the provider's own in-house staff, or subjected to review by independent authorities in the field. In some areas of our Web Site, we make content available that comes from sponsors. We design these areas to make it clear to the user that the content has not gone through our editorial process. Medscape reviews site content regularly to ensure that it remains relevant. Where necessary, content found to be incorrect or out of date is corrected, updated, moved to an archive (where it remains available), or purged. We often use editor's notes to indicate when this has occurred.
We provide company logos or links to other web sites throughout our Web Site. These logos and links are not intended to imply that we approve of or recommend these entities to consumers. Where we are making a recommendation, we clearly state that fact in connection with the logo or link. We design our Web Site with the goal of making it clear to you when you are leaving our Web sites for another Web Site, so that you will know that another site's advertising, editorial policy, privacy policy, and terms of use are in effect.
Most medical and health information/education sites on the World Wide Web, like their counterparts in print publishing, rely on advertising and sponsorship, including banner advertising, grants, and sponsorship of Continuing Education programs. We discuss advertising later in this policy. With respect to sponsorship or other financial relationships, we observe the following principles:
We develop and display all programs for which healthcare professionals may earn continuing education credit in accordance with the guidelines of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) or other relevant accrediting bodies. These guidelines will apply to placement of commercial supporters' names, logos, information about specific brand name pharmaceutical products, date(s) material is posted, names of faculty/writers, and any relevant faculty/writer disclosure information. You can review the ACCME's rules online at the following URL: http://www.accme.org/. In addition, we have received ACCME accreditation as a CME provider which allows us to certify CME activities.
We welcome any comments, questions, or complaints you have about this editorial policy or our Web sites. Please feel free to contact us by sending an email to editor2@medscape.net.
Revision date: This policy was last updated on February 22, 2008.
