HOUSTON and NEW YORK, March 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Baylor College of Medicine and Medscape, the leading source of medical news and information for physicians, today announced a partnership that will connect Baylor College of Medicine pediatricians with physicians using Medscape Consult -- a  global peer-to-peer, point-of-care digital platform for sharing cases, asking questions and engaging with each other about clinical observations and discoveries.  

Baylor College of Medicine's pediatric experts will serve as Medscape Consult editors, providing insight, responses, and replies to physicians' questions about complex clinical concerns related to infancy, childhood and adolescence, unusual or difficult de-identified patient cases, as well as emerging pandemics that affect children, such as Zika. Ricardo Quiñonez, MD, associate professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and section head and service chief of pediatric hospital medicine at Texas Children's Hospital, will serve as editor-in-chief and oversee a team of senior faculty, junior faculty and fellows from across pediatric specialties.

Texas Children's Hospital is Baylor College of Medicine's primary teaching hospital for pediatrics. It is the largest pediatric hospital in the U.S., providing medical care in more than 40 pediatric subspecialties. Physicians treating children in the U.S. and worldwide refer some of their most challenging cases to the hospital.

"Physicians everywhere are confronting a host of new clinical challenges in a rapidly changing environment," said Dr. Quiñonez. "They need to connect with colleagues and get advice and answers quickly. At Baylor and Texas Children's, we have the perspective of seeing some of the most difficult pediatric cases from around the world. Through our Medscape Consult partnership, we can offer our colleagues the knowledge and insights gained through that experience."

The Power of Physician Crowdsourcing

Hundreds of thousands of physicians have used Medscape's crowdsourcing platform since its 2015 launch, and pediatricians are among its most active users. In November 2015, a Consult pediatrician from Brazil was among the first to voice concern about a spike in infants born with microcephaly and a possible link to the Zika virus. This early alert to an emerging worldwide health issue (announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention weeks later) demonstrates the remarkable power of the global Consult physician community.

"It is a privilege to partner with the physicians at Baylor College of Medicine," said Steve Zatz, MD, CEO of WebMD/Medscape. "Physicians are increasingly relying on digital platforms to get the information they need to keep up with the pace of practice. This new partnership strengthens our commitment to ensuring that Medscape Consult provides clinical information that is evidence-based and clinically useful within an engaged and growing global community of physicians."

About Baylor College of Medicine

Baylor College of Medicine (www.bcm.edu) in Houston is recognized as a premier academic health sciences center and is known for excellence in education, research, and patient care. It is the only private medical school in the greater Southwest and is ranked 20th among medical schools for research and ninth for primary care by U.S. News & World Report. Baylor is listed 20th among all U.S. medical schools for National Institutes of Health funding and No. 1 in Texas. Located in the Texas Medical Center, Baylor has affiliations with eight teaching hospitals and jointly owns and operates Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center, part of CHI St. Luke's Health. Currently, Baylor trains more than 3,000 medical, graduate, nurse anesthesia, physician assistant, and orthotics students, as well as residents and postdoctoral fellows. Baylor also is home to the National School of Tropical Medicine, the first in the Western Hemisphere devoted to neglected tropical disease. 

About Medscape and WebMD

Medscape, a subsidiary of WebMD Health Corp., is the leading source of clinical news, health information and point-of-care tools for healthcare professionals. Medscape offers specialists, primary care physicians, and other health professionals the most robust and integrated medical information and educational tools. Medscape Education (medscape.org) is the leading destination for continuous professional development, consisting of more than 30 specialty-focused destinations offering thousands of free CME and CE courses and other educational programs for physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals.

WebMD Health Corp. is the leading provider of health information services, serving consumers, physicians, healthcare professionals, employers, and health plans through our public and private online portals, mobile platforms, and health-focused publications. WebMD®, Medscape®, CME Circle®, Medpulse®, eMedicine®, MedicineNet®, theheart.org®, and RxList® are among the trademarks of WebMD Health Corp. or its subsidiaries.

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SOURCE Medscape