MedPage Today is a medical news-focused site owned by Ziff-Davis, LLC. It is based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, and is geared primarily toward medical and health professionals.

History

The news service MedPage Today was founded by Robert S. Stern in March 2005. In January 2010, the organization was provided approval for offering

American Academy of Family Physicians The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) was founded in 1947 to promote and maintain high-quality standards for family medicine, an offshoot of the classical general practitioner. It is headquartered in Leawood, Kansas. AAFP is one of ...

-accredited CME credits in collaboration with the Office of Continuing Medical Education at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

School of Medicine. In December 2010, the organization was acquired by

Everyday Health Everyday Health Group is a digital media company which owns websites and produces content relating to health and wellness for consumers and medical professionals. For consumers, its brands include Everyday Health, Diabetes Daily, Migraine Again, ...

, a subsidiary of

Ziff-Davis Ziff Davis, Inc. is an American digital media and internet company. First founded in 1927 by William Bernard Ziff Sr. and Bernard George Davis, the company primarily owns technology-oriented media websites, online shopping-related services, and ...

. In July 2011, MedPage Today announced a collaboration with the

American Heart Association The American Heart Association (AHA) is a nonprofit organization in the United States that funds cardiovascular medical research, educates consumers on healthy living and fosters appropriate cardiac care in an effort to reduce disability and death ...

for a daily email

newsletter A newsletter is a printed or electronic report containing news concerning the activities of a business or an organization that is sent to its members, customers, employees or other subscribers. Newsletters generally contain one main topic of int ...

named ''Cardiovascular Daily''. In June 2017, MedPage Today started to collaborate with the

Endocrine Society The Endocrine Society is a professional, international medical organization in the field of endocrinology and metabolism, founded in 1916 as The Association for the Study of Internal Secretions. The official name of the organization was changed ...

on a "Reading Room" combining articles from the two organizations. MedPage has won several Platinum eHealthcare Leadership Award multiple times in different categories.

In news

Rising case of amputation

During October 2017, Cheryl Clark of MedPage Today wrote an independent statistical and clinical analysis on the rise in cases of amputation for the patients with diabetes from 2013 onwards. This analysis invited mixed receptions from the different parts of the medical profession.

Investigations of opioid painkillers

During 2011 and 2012, MedPage Today and the ''

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel The ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'' is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it is the primary newspaper. It is also the largest newspaper in the state of Wisconsin, where it is widely distributed. It is currently o ...

'' jointly investigated the "questionable financial relationships" between the pharmaceutical companies that commercially produce narcotic painkillers and numerous nonprofit organizations that advocate for the pain treatment. The investigation included the special report where it was claimed that UW Pain & Policy Studies Group (a University of Wisconsin-Madison–based organization of medical professionals) received the undisclosed amount of $2.5 million from drug manufacturers to advocate and promote the usage and prescription of opioid-based drugs. The investigation was further extended by a U.S. Senate Committee on its merit. Endorsing the findings of the journalistic investigation, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee,

Max Baucus Maxwell Sieben Baucus ( Enke; born December 11, 1941) is an American politician who served as a United States senator from Montana from 1978 to 2014. A member of the Democratic Party, he was a U.S. senator for over 35 years, making him the longe ...

, remarked, "It is clear that the United States is suffering from an epidemic of accidental deaths and addiction resulting from increased use of powerful narcotic painkillers". While the committee also described the situation of pervasive practice of prescribing opioid painkillers as an "epidemic", the focus of the discussion was the drug OxyContin, manufactured by

Purdue Pharma Purdue Pharma L.P., formerly the Purdue Frederick Company, is an American privately held pharmaceutical company founded by John Purdue Gray. It was owned principally by members of the Sackler family as descendants of Mortimer and Raymond Sackler ...

. During 2015, MedPage Today and '' The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel'' jointly in their investigative report mentioned the troubled history of approval of Opana ER as done by the

FDA The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food ...

and its consequent pervasive abuse. Triggered by the report and its consequent aftermath, the FDA decided to remove the opioid painkiller from the market for the second time during June 2017 where the same drug was removed from the market in 1979 followed by the alarming abuse during 1960 and 1970.

Dinner table story

In November 2017, MedPage Today published a critical report on the insurance machinery and its way of functioning which was referred to as "dinner table stories" by others. The report fueled controversy and its reception was mixed; some regarded it as useful for exposing the unethical practices carried out by the insurance officials, while others raised questions of factual accuracy and criticized the depiction of the preauthorization process.

Suicide cases

MedPage Today is known for carrying out series of analysis on suicide cases, instances, rates, etc. In September 2018, MedPage Today published a report blaming medical professionals including physicians and their "lack of clinical training" as the reason for the rising rate of suicide in the United States. The focus of the report was to fix the accountability of the suicides on the physicians and the rising rate of suicide was blamed to be a result of the failure of the physicians in general. The report invited severe criticism from physicians and the hypothesis in the report was rejected by most of the medical professionals. This is a letter-to-the-editor by three medical practitioners to MedPage Today. It is unclear if MPT ever ran a copy of it or responded to it.

References

External links

* {{Ziff Davis American news websites News aggregators American medical websites Internet properties established in 2005