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Division of Public Health Services

Publish Date:
June 28, 2013

Concord, NH - The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services today announces a new partnership with Medscape that will enhance communication efforts of urgent public health messages to New Hampshire’s health care professionals. Medscape from WebMD, is a leading source of clinical news, health information and point-of-care tools for healthcare professionals.

“This partnership complements our current Heath Alert Network (HAN) system and will allow us to heighten our efforts and reach additional New Hampshire health care professionals in a timely manner,” said Dr. José Montero, Public Health Director at DHHS.

Presently, the Department delivers critical health information through health alerts sent to state and local public health agencies, healthcare providers, hospitals, and emergency management officials as part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) national HAN system. Since January 2012, New Hampshire has sent 40 health alerts to over 4,000 medical and public health partners that provided situational updates and awareness of emerging public health threats including the national fungal meningitis outbreak, Hepatitis C outbreak, influenza, Novel Avian Influenza A (H7N9) virus, Lyme Disease and West Nile virus.

Information is currently distributed through the HAN system to public health partners who sign up with the Department for this free service. Medscape will now distribute this information to their members as well, helping to expand the reach of our messages within the healthcare community.

"Medscape is the leading source of news and health information for healthcare providers," said Robert Marotta, Senior Vice President & Chief Regulatory Counsel of WebMD. "We will work alongside the New Hampshire State Department of Health on both a state and local level to enhance existing channels of communication to physicians and swiftly and effectively reach healthcare providers with urgent health information when needed."

For more information about the Health Alerts in New Hampshire, visit the DHHS website at http://www.dhhs.nh.gov/dphs/cdcs/alerts/index.htm.