American College of Cardiology and WebMD Partner on New Initiative to Educate Physicians...

American College of Cardiology and WebMD Partner on New Initiative to Educate
Physicians and Patients on Cardiovascular Risk Reduction

WASHINGTON and NEW YORK, March 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The American
College of Cardiology (ACC) and WebMD (Nasdaq: WBMD), the leading provider of
health information for consumers, physicians and healthcare professionals,
today announced a new partnership to help educate both clinicians and patients
on cardiovascular risk reduction.
For healthcare practitioners, the initiative will include continuing
education activities, cardiovascular news and patient information. The
program, "Cardiovascular Risk Reduction: Putting Guidelines into Practice to
Improve Outcomes," will be jointly developed by Medscape, the leading portal
for physicians and healthcare professionals from WebMD, and ACC. It will
address the educational needs of cardiologists, primary care physicians, other
health care professionals, as well as patients.
For consumers, the ACC and WebMD also announced today plans to collaborate
on a consumer health initiative that will make new, patient-friendly resources
available to all Americans. At WebMD.com, a co-branded information center
will leverage the latest clinical insights from ACC, with WebMD's credible
news and content. At ACC's newly-launched CardioSmart site for patients,
www.cardiosmart.org, ACC will feature WebMD's award-winning news and videos.
This consumer initiative is designed to educate and encourage consumers and
patients to actively participate in heart health, disease prevention and
treatment and to strengthen the patient-doctor relationship and improve the
dialogue around cardiac care.
"The ACC has long been known for providing the latest clinical information
to cardiovascular professionals. As we broaden our reach to provide of-the-
minute cardiovascular information to patients as well, we are delighted to be
working with WebMD, which has a strong presence and hard-earned reputation in
this arena," said Jack Lewin, M.D., CEO of ACC. "For professionals, we are
very excited to be working with Medscape to deliver the latest educational
tools to our physicians, those in other specialties and their patients."
"Given WebMD's commitment to providing consumers and physicians with the
information and tools needed to better manage their care, we are proud to be
working with the ACC on this unprecedented partnership," said Wayne
Gattinella, Chief Executive Officer, WebMD. "This important initiative will
deliver the most authoritative, actionable heart information to consumers,
physicians and healthcare professionals."
A multidisciplinary Steering Committee, comprised of the country's leading
experts in cardiology and primary care, will guide editorial content for the
initiative. The Steering Committee will be chaired by Christopher Cannon,
M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
"Cardiosource continues to strive to provide the most up-to-date clinical
information to practicing cardiologists," said Christopher Cannon, M.D.,
F.A.C.C., editor in chief of Cardiosource. "Partnering with WebMD gives us an
exciting opportunity to take this same style of information sharing to the
patient level through their highly-respected, well-established portals, as
well as our new patient site, CardioSmart."
The information for clinicians will be available at www.medscape.com/acc
and at www.cardiosource.com, ACC's clinical website; the clinician-directed
patient education materials will be available at Medscape's Patient Education
Center. The information for consumers will be available at www.webmd.com and
at CardioSmart, www.cardiosmart.org, ACC's new site on cardiovascular disease,
prevention, and management for health care professionals to use with their
patients.
About the American College of Cardiology
The American College of Cardiology is leading the way to optimal
cardiovascular care and disease prevention. The College is a 34,000-member
nonprofit medical society and bestows the credential Fellow of the American
College of Cardiology upon physicians who meet its stringent qualifications.
The College is a leader in the formulation of health policy, standards and
guidelines, and is a staunch supporter of cardiovascular research. The ACC
provides professional education and operates national registries for the
measurement and improvement of quality care. For more information, visit
www.acc.org.
About WebMD
WebMD Health Corp. (Nasdaq: WBMD) is a leading provider of health
information services to consumers, physicians, healthcare professionals,
employers and health plans through our public and private online portals and
health-focused publications. WebMD Health Corp. is a subsidiary of HLTH
Corporation (Nasdaq: HLTH).
The WebMD Health Network includes its leading owned and operated sites
WebMD Health, Medscape, MedicineNet, eMedicine, eMedicine Health, RxList and
theheart.org.
SOURCE WebMD and The American College of Cardiology

Amy Murphy, American College of Cardiology, +1-240-328-4549, amurphy@acc.org;
Jennifer Newman, WebMD, +1-212-624-3912, jnewman@webmd.net