eMedicine facts for kids

eMedicine is a huge online library of medical information. It was started in 1996 by doctors Scott Plantz and Jonathan Adler, along with computer engineer Jeffrey Berezin. The eMedicine website has about 6,800 articles on different medical topics. Each article is like a chapter in a special medical textbook. It also has over 25,000 medical pictures and videos.

Doctors who are experts in their field write these articles. Other doctors and even a pharmacist check them carefully. This makes sure the information is correct and up-to-date. The articles are updated every year, or even more often if new medical facts come out. In 2006, eMedicine was sold to WebMD. Now, it is part of Medscape Reference.

History of eMedicine

The idea for eMedicine started in 1996. The founders, Plantz, Adler, and Berezin, created a special computer system. This system allowed many doctors to work together on articles at the same time. They first used it to create a large collection of information on emergency medicine. Over 600 doctors wrote more than 630 chapters in just over a year.

In 1997, eMedicine became its own company. It received money from investors to grow even bigger. Over several years, they added more than 6,100 medical and surgical articles. Most of the work happened in their office in Omaha, Nebraska.

In the early 2000s, eMedicine also worked with the University of Nebraska Medical Center. This partnership helped doctors, nurses, and pharmacists get special training credits from eMedicine's content. In 2005, the company decided to sell eMedicine to WebMD. The sale was finished in January 2006.

The website is free to use, but you need to sign up. You could also read eMedicine content like an e-book. It could even be put onto old palm top devices.

StatPearls and eMedicine Founders

In 2018, the original founders of eMedicine started a new project called StatPearls. This project aims to create a free, large online medical education database. It also helps medical workers get affordable training credits.

How Medical Experts Use eMedicine

Many medical professionals use eMedicine as a trusted source of information. In 2012, a study looked at the most used online health sources. These were Wikipedia, eMedicine, and MedlinePlus. The study found that eMedicine had the most accurate information. About 84% of its content matched current medical textbooks. Wikipedia and MedlinePlus had lower accuracy.

The study also looked at how easy the websites were to use. MedlinePlus was the easiest to read. It was written at about a 9th-grade reading level. eMedicine was a bit harder to read and navigate. However, it had the most correct and complete information.

Doctors often use eMedicine to turn new research into practical advice. For example, a study in 2009 showed that many eye doctors (60.2%) used eMedicine. In 2007, 12% of doctors training in radiology used eMedicine first for their research. A 2005 study ranked eMedicine as the second-best online source for children's brain cancer information. Only the National Cancer Institute website was better.

In 2002, a study said that eMedicine's information on skin conditions (dermatology) was "excellent and comprehensive." In 2000, a medical journal announced that eMedicine had put a full textbook for ear, nose, and throat doctors online.

See also

In Spanish: EMedicine para niños