Healthline

Last updated

Healthline Media
Healthline logo.svg
Type of business Subsidiary
Founded1999;25 years ago (1999) [1] (as YourDoctor.com)
Headquarters San Francisco, California & New York, New York, United States
OwnerHealthline Media (Red Ventures)
Products Health information services
Employees279 (2018)
URL www.healthline.com

Healthline Media, Inc. is an American website and provider of health information headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1999, relaunched in 2006, and established as a standalone entity in January 2016. Healthline has been ranked towards the middle of top-ranking health information websites. A study of top-ranking health websites published in 2021 evaluated its quality as "good", compared to MedlinePlus's "excellent" scores and Medical News Today's "fair/good" ranking. [2] A 2020 study of readability ranked Healthline the second least-readable (highest education level required) among the top five Google results for information about phenylketonuria, excluding Wikipedia. [3]

Contents

Description

Healthline Media runs healthline.com, which publishes health and wellness information. [4] It also has provided health content to third party websites. In 2010, Healthline Media signed an agreement to provide medical and health-related content to Yahoo! Health. [5] Other partners have included AARP.com, The Dr. Oz Show web site, [6] and Aetna. [7]

History

Healthline Media was founded in 1999 by endocrine specialist James Norman as YourDoctor.com. [6] In 2006, the company re-launched as Healthline Networks. [8]

In 2011, Healthline was reported to be losing money because it was licensing its content from others. The company invested $1 million to develop its own content. [9] By 2013, it had over $21 million in revenue and 105 employees, with offices in New York City and San Francisco. [8] Deloitte ranked Healthline Media as one of the top 500 fastest-growing technology companies in North America from 2010 to 2013. [10]

In January 2016, Healthline raised $95 million in growth equity financing through Summit Partners. [11] [9] Under the terms of the agreement, Healthline's media business was established as a standalone entity with David Kopp as CEO. The firm acquired the health news website Medical News Today and reference website MediLexicon in May 2016. [12]

In July 2019, Healthline was acquired by Red Ventures. In August 2020, Healthline acquired Psych Central. [13]

Reception

While some writers have used terms like "reliable" [14] to describe Healthline, others have questioned both the quality of its content and its usability and readability.

For example, the site Health News Review said a Healthline article about a new medication used promotional language copied from the drug-maker's press release, neglected to cite side effects, and framed the drug's claimed benefits in misleading language that failed to accurately reflect the evidence in a peer-reviewed medical journal. [15] [16] Another news reviewer noted that an article on depression cited studies that had not been peer-reviewed, but provided "multiple perspectives from both within and outside the research articles" without exaggeration. [17]

In a study using coverage of neck pain to evaluate a tool designed to review health websites, Healthline received a score of "good". In particular, it received high marks in areas such as accuracy, readability, disclosure of sources and ownership, and usability, with lower scores in areas such as comprehensiveness and accessibility. [18]

Healthline is included on Wikipedia's spam blacklist due to its publication of misinformation. [19]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aetna</span> American insurance company

Aetna Inc. is an American managed health care company that sells traditional and consumer directed health care insurance and related services, such as medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans, primarily through employer-paid insurance and benefit programs, and through Medicare. Since November 28, 2018, the company has been a subsidiary of CVS Health.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Health On the Net Foundation</span> Nonprofit organization that certifies online medical information

Health On the Net Foundation (HON) is a Swiss not-for-profit organization based in Geneva which promotes a code of conduct for websites providing health information and offers certificates to those in compliance.

WebMD is an American corporation which publishes online news and information about human health and well-being. The WebMD website also includes information about drugs and is an important healthcare information website and the most popular consumer-oriented health site.

TV.com was a website owned by Red Ventures that covered television series and episodes with a focus on English-language shows made or broadcast in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Originally launched by CNET in the mid-1990s, the website was transformed in 2005 when CNET acquired the website TV Tome and incorporated its assets into the new website's composition. CNET Networks, including the TV.com site, was later purchased by CBS in 2008. In its heyday, TV.com emphasized user-generated content listings for a wide variety of programs that included episode air dates, descriptions, news, season listings, notes, credits, trivia, and a forum section.

Medical News Today is a web-based outlet for medical information and news, targeted at both the general public and physicians. All posted content is available online, and the earliest available article dates from May 2003. The website was founded in 2003 by Alastair Hazell and Christian Nordqvist. It was acquired by Healthline Media in April 2016.

eMedicine is an online clinical medical knowledge base founded in 1996 by doctors Scott Plantz and Jonathan Adler, and computer engineer Jeffrey Berezin. The eMedicine website consists of approximately 6,800 medical topic review articles, each of which is associated with a clinical subspecialty "textbook". The knowledge base includes over 25,000 clinically multimedia files.

Utilization management (UM) or utilization review is the use of managed care techniques such as prior authorization that allow payers, particularly health insurance companies, to manage the cost of health care benefits by assessing its appropriateness before it is provided using evidence-based criteria or guidelines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red Ventures</span> American media company

Red Ventures is an American media company that owns and operates brands such as Lonely Planet, CNET, ZDNet, The Points Guy, Healthline, and Bankrate. Red Ventures focuses on news, advice, and review websites. The company's corporate headquarters is located in Indian Land, South Carolina, a suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina.

HealthCentral is an American privately owned digital health media company. The company owns and operates consumer health brands HealthCentral.com, TheBody.com, and PatientPower.info, as well as brands for medical professionals including MedCentral.com, TheBodyPro.com, and OBROncology.com.

Sharecare is an Atlanta, Georgia-based health and wellness company that provides consumers with personalized health-related information, programs, and resources. It provides personalized information to the site's users based on their responses to the RealAge Test, the company's health risk assessment tool, and offers a clinical decision support tool, AskMD. Headquartered in Atlanta, Sharecare was founded in 2010 by Jeff Arnold and Dr. Mehmet Oz, in partnership with Remark Media, Harpo Studios, Sony Pictures Television and Discovery Communications.

Healthgrades Operating Company Inc., known as Healthgrades, is a US company that provides information about physicians, hospitals, and healthcare providers. Healthgrades has amassed information on over three million U.S. health care providers. The company was founded by Kerry Hicks, David Hicks, Peter Fatianow, John Neal, and Sarah Lochran, and is based in Denver, Colorado. Rob Draughon serves as the company's CEO. According to USA Today, Healthgrades is the first comprehensive physician rating and comparison database. The application is part of a trend in health technology in the United States towards consumer-driven healthcare.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Health information on Wikipedia</span>

The Wikipedia online encyclopedia has, since the late 2000s, served as a popular source for health information for both laypersons and, in many cases, health care practitioners. Health-related articles on Wikipedia are popularly accessed as results from search engines, which frequently deliver links to Wikipedia articles. Independent assessments have been made of the number and demographics of people who seek health information on Wikipedia, the scope of health information on Wikipedia, and the quality and reliability of the information on Wikipedia.

Doximity is an online networking service for medical professionals. Launched in 2010, the platform offers its members curated medical news, telehealth tools, and case collaboration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Health information on the Internet</span>

Health information on the Internet refers to all health-related information communicated through or available on the Internet.

Psych Central is a mental health information and news website. Psych Central is overseen by mental health professionals who create and oversee all the content published on the site. The site was created in 1995. The site was named as one of the Internet's 50 Best Websites in 2008 by Time, and has approximately 6 million unique visitors per month. PsychCentral was acquired by Healthline in August 2020. Former attorney and author, Faye McCray was appointed Editor-In-Chief in 2021.

A WikiProject, or Wikiproject, is an affinity group for contributors with shared goals within the Wikimedia movement. WikiProjects are prevalent within the largest wiki, Wikipedia, and exist to varying degrees within sibling projects such as Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikidata, and Wikisource. They also exist in different languages, and translation of articles is a form of their collaboration.

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Optum, Inc. is an American healthcare services provider with business interests encompassing technology and related services, pharmacy care services and various direct healthcare services. It has been a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group since 2011. UHG formed Optum by merging its existing pharmacy and care delivery services into the single Optum brand, comprising three main businesses: OptumHealth, OptumInsight and OptumRx. In 2017, Optum accounted for 44 percent of UnitedHealth Group's profits and as of 2019, Optum's revenues have surpassed $100 billion. Also in early 2019, Optum gained significant media attention regarding a trade secrets lawsuit that the company filed against former executive David William Smith, after Smith left Optum to join Haven, the joint healthcare venture of Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, and Berkshire Hathaway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vaccine Safety Net</span> Network of medical information websites

Vaccine Safety Net (VSN) is a global network of websites aimed at helping people judge the quality of online information on vaccine safety. It was established in 2003 by the World Health Organization (WHO), which had previously set up the independent Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS), prompted by concern from public health officials regarding the dissemination of potentially harmful health information via the web. By appraising websites, using credibility and content criteria defined by GACVS, the VSN has been developed to deliver information that is easy to access and up-to-date. As of 2020, the initiative has 89 member sites in 40 countries and 35 languages.

References

  1. ↑ "YourDoctor.com WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info – DomainTools". WHOIS . Retrieved July 20, 2016.
  2. ↑ Portillo, Ivan A.; Johnson, Catherine V.; Johnson, Scott Y. (2021). "Quality Evaluation of Consumer Health Information Websites Found on Google Using DISCERN, CRAAP, and HONcode". Medical Reference Services Quarterly (Link is to Preprint Version). 40 (4): 396–407. doi:10.1080/02763869.2021.1987799. ISSN   1540-9597. PMID   34752199. S2CID   243864890.
  3. ↑ Marsh, Jessie M.; Dobbs, Thomas D.; Hutchings, Hayley A. (October 1, 2020). "The readability of online health resources for phenylketonuria". Journal of Community Genetics. 11 (4): 451–459. doi:10.1007/s12687-020-00461-9. ISSN   1868-6001. PMC   7475157 . PMID   32221843.
  4. ↑ Tedeschi, Bob (January 23, 2006). "This Site Knows a Cold Isn't a Rock Band". The New York Times . Retrieved January 23, 2006.
  5. ↑ Helft, Miguel (April 1, 2010). "Yahoo Teams Up with Healthline". Bits (blog). The New York Times . Retrieved April 1, 2010.
  6. 1 2 Roush, Wade. "Healthline Battles WebMD With Personalized Medical Search Tools, Body Maps". Xconomy. Retrieved November 30, 2011.
  7. ↑ Kolbasuk McGee, Marianne. "Aetna Taps Healthline for Patient Portal". Information Week. Retrieved March 29, 2011.
  8. 1 2 "Healthline Networks, Inc". InsideView. Archived from the original on December 18, 2013. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
  9. 1 2 Sluis, Sarah: "How A Focus On Quality And Discipline Revived Healthline Media", April 17, 2019, AdExchanger.com, retrieved November 15, 2020.
  10. ↑ "Technology Fast 500". Deloitte. Archived from the original on December 19, 2013.
  11. ↑ Healthline Media Raises Growth Financing from Summit Partners http://www.summitpartners.com/news/healthline-media-raises-growth-financing-from-summit-partners
  12. ↑ Healthline Media Grows Digital Reach with Acquisition of #1 Website for Medical News Information http://www.prweb.com/releases/2016/04/prweb13368746.htm
  13. ↑ "Healthline Media Acquires PsychCentral, Bolstering Healthline's Role as the Top Digital Health Publisher" (Press release). Businesswire. August 14, 2020. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
  14. ↑ Hayawi, K.; Shahriar, S.; Serhani, M. A.; Taleb, I.; Mathew, S. S. (February 1, 2022). "ANTi-Vax: a novel Twitter dataset for COVID-19 vaccine misinformation detection". Public Health. 203: 23–30. doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2021.11.022. ISSN   0033-3506. PMC   8648668 . PMID   35016072.
  15. ↑ Victory, Joy (March 28, 2018). "When 'fact-checked' health news doesn't tell the whole story". HealthNewsReview.org . Archived from the original on December 3, 2020.
  16. ↑ Schwitzer, Gary (September 19, 2019). "Why fact-checking alone often fails us on health care topics". Center for Health Journalism. Archived from the original on February 4, 2021.
  17. ↑ Manouchehri, Kimya; Schmid, Julia (February 26, 2020). "Healthline uses multiple perspectives to illuminate findings related to neurological influences on depressive disorders". SciFeye. Archived from the original on February 12, 2021.
  18. ↑ Zubiena, Luke; Lewin, Olivia; Coleman, Robert; Phezulu, James; Ogunfiditimi, Gbemisola; Blackburn, Tiffany; Joseph, Leonard (August 1, 2023). "Development and testing of the health information website evaluation tool on neck pain websites – An analysis of reliability, validity, and utility" (PDF). Patient Education and Counseling. 113: 107762. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2023.107762 . ISSN   0738-3991. PMID   37087877.
  19. ↑ Dupré, Maggie Harrison (February 29, 2024). "Wikipedia No Longer Considers CNET a "Generally Reliable" Source After AI Scandal". Futurism. Retrieved March 1, 2024.
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