By using this Service (as defined below), you agree to the following Terms of Use, which constitute an agreement between you and the respective owners and operators of the WebMD and Medscape professional Web sites. We may change these terms from time to time. You will always be able to view the most current version by clicking on a link at the bottom of any page on the site. By using this Service, you agree to these Terms of Use. If you do not agree to all of these Terms of Use, do not use this Service!
WebMD and Medscape provide users with access to a wide variety of resources through their respective professional Web sites including, but not limited to, articles, reference tools, continuing education for medical professionals, communication tools, message boards and search services (collectively, the "Service"). WebMD and Medscape may have other Web sites that are covered by different terms of use. The terms of use for these other Web sites are available on the home page of each such Web site. The Service is intended for physicians and other healthcare professionals.
Reference to "WebMD" means WebMD LLC, including any company that WebMD controls (for example a subsidiary that it owns). For purposes of these Terms of Use, WebMD's Web sites include www.medscape.com, and www.emedicine.com (referred to as the "WebMD Professional Sites"). Reference to "Medscape" means Medscape, LLC, including any company that Medscape controls (for example a subsidiary that it owns), and Medscape's Web sites include www.medscapecme.com, and www.theheart.org (referred to as the "Medscape Professional Sites" and referred to together with the WebMD Professional Sites as the "Professional Sites"). Reference to "we" or "our" means WebMD and Medscape.
Please remember that all of the information available through the Service is intended for adults who are licensed healthcare professionals. While we hope you find the Service helpful, you should remember that it is not meant to serve as a substitute for your own clinical judgment as a healthcare professional. Neither WebMD nor Medscape provides medical advice. If you are a consumer who chooses to use the professional-level information available through the Service, you should not rely on that information as professional medical advice or use it to replace any relationship with your physician or other qualified healthcare professional. For medical concerns, including decisions about medications and other treatments, consumers should always consult their physician or, in serious cases, seek immediate assistance from emergency personnel. We each follow standard sets of editorial procedures for information that we each make available through the Service. However, we don't offer you any warranty or guarantee related to the Service that we provide. We specifically disclaim any warranties, express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. It's your job to evaluate the information and results from Service we provide. If you are a healthcare professional, you should exercise your professional judgment in evaluating any information, and we encourage you to confirm the information made available or otherwise obtained through the Service with other sources before undertaking any treatment based on it. If you are a consumer, you should evaluate the information together with your physician or another qualified healthcare professional.
The use of the Service is at your own risk and the Service and the content are provided on as "AS IS" basis. Some information made available through the Service may be provided by users of the applicable Web site. Neither WebMD nor Medscape is responsible for that information. Whether the information is provided by us, our licensors or a user of a Web site owned and operated by either WebMD or Medscape, neither we nor our licensors are liable for any damages resulting from your use of the information made available through the Service. Although we are selective about the organizations we link to from our respective Web sites, we don't assume any responsibility for any Web sites that are linked to or from the Service. While we welcome your feedback regarding the Service, we must make the final decisions about the content made available through the Service. You can use the feedback link on the home page of the applicable Web site to submit comments. If you are dissatisfied with the response you receive or with the content of the Service, your only remedy is to stop using the Service.
The Service includes clinical tools and databases intended for use by healthcare professionals. These tools do not give professional advice or recommend particular products. Physicians and other healthcare professionals who use these tools or databases should exercise their own clinical judgment as to the information they provide. Consumers who use the tools or databases do so at their own risk. Individuals with any type of medical condition are specifically cautioned to seek professional medical advice before beginning any sort of health treatment. For medical concerns, including decisions about medications and other treatments, users should always consult their physician or other qualified healthcare professional.
WebMD's drug interaction checker is based on two-drug combinations. The results returned by the checker reflect only paired interactions and compatibility and do not reflect interactions or incompatibilities arising from combinations of more than two drugs at a time.
The WebMD Health Directory is provided for informational purposes only. You are prohibited from using, downloading, republishing, selling, duplicating, or "scraping" for commercial or any other purpose whatsoever, the Physician Directory, Pharmacy Directory, Hospital Directory or any of the data listings or other information contained therein, in whole or in part, in any medium whatsoever. The Health Directory is provided on an "AS-IS" basis. WebMD and its licensors disclaim all warranties, either express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for particular purpose. Without limiting the foregoing, WebMD and its licensors do not warrant or represent that the Health Directory or any part thereof is accurate or complete. You assume full responsibility for the communications with any physician, pharmacy or hospital you contact through the Health Directory. The database of information which drives the Health Directory does not contain sufficient information with which to verify credentials under the standards of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) of the Utilization Review Accreditation Committee (URAC), and use of the Health Directory to verify the credentials of physicians is prohibited.
You acknowledge and agree that the Service and information, content and software presented to you through the Service or used in connection with the Service contain proprietary and confidential information that is protected under U.S. and international intellectual property laws, including copyright, trademarks, service marks, patents or other proprietary rights and laws. Except as expressly authorized by us or our licensors, you agree not to sell, rewrite, modify, redistribute, create derivative works, or rent the Service of any information presented to you through the Service, in whole or in part.
You may look at the Service online, download individual articles to your personal or handheld computer for later reading, and even print a copy of an article for yourself. You may not remove any copyright notices from our materials. We reserve all of our other rights not granted in these Terms of Use. You agree not to access the Service by any means other than through the interface that is provided by us for use in accessing the Service.
Usually, we don't mind if you include a simple link from your Web site to the Service. However, you must first ask our permission if you intend to frame our site or incorporate pieces of it into a different site or product in such a way that is not clear to our users that we are the source of the content. You are not allowed to link to us if you engage in the publication or promotion of illegal, obscene, or offensive content, or if the link in any way negatively impact on our reputation.
When you upload materials or information to areas of the Service that are publicly available, you give us an irrevocable, perpetual license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display that information in connection with the Service. For example, if you post a comment to a WebMD discussion board, you grant WebMD the right to display that comment through the Service for as long as we want. We will consider requests to remove information that you make publicly available through the Service on an individual basis (contact us at the email address we provide at the end of this document). For information and materials you upload to areas of the Service that are not publicly available, please see our Privacy Policy for an explanation of how we use that information and your rights to change or delete it. We provide the link to our privacy policy later in this document. We ask that you not post any messages with misleading, false, or inappropriate language or statements. We reserve the right to remove any content that we deem offensive or fraudulent at any time without your consent.
WebMD may make some software and accompanying documentation available for downloading through the Service. These materials are the copyrighted work of WebMD or companies that have licensed the software to WebMD. We do not transfer any ownership rights in software or related documentation to you when you download it through the Service; rather, you are allowed to use the software and documentation under the terms of the license agreement. You must read this license agreement and indicate your agreement to those terms prior to downloading. You are not authorized to attempt to recreate or reverse engineer our software. In addition, some software available through the Service is subject to United States export controls. By downloading or using such software, you are representing to us that your download of such software complies with these controls.
We offer to our users several tools that allow you to record and store information. You are responsible for taking all reasonable steps to ensure that no unauthorized person shall have access to your passwords or accounts. You are responsible for all activities that occur under your password or account. It is your sole responsibility to (1) control the dissemination and use of activation codes and passwords; (2) authorize, monitor, and control access to and use of your account and password; (3) promptly inform us of any need to deactivate a password. You grant us and all other persons or entities involved in the operation of the Service the right to transmit, monitor, retrieve, store, and use your information in connection with the operation of the Service. We cannot and do not not assume any responsibility or liability for any information you submit in connection with the Service, or your or third parties' use or misuse of information transmitted or received using the Service.
If you use a community and communication feature of the Service, such as POL Mail or Medscape Mail, bulletin board, blog or discussion service (a "Community and Communication Service"), you are responsible for all communications, information, data, text, music, sound, graphics, messages and other material ("Content") that you upload, post, transmit, email or otherwise distribute through a Community and Communication Service. WebMD and its licensors are not responsible for the consequences of the Content posted by you or any other party through a Community and Communication Service and as such, does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of such Content. You understand that by using a Community and Communication Service, you may be exposed to Content that is offensive or objectionable. In no event will WebMD or Medscape be liable in any way for any Content or for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any Content uploaded, posted, transmitted, emailed or otherwise made available through a Community and Communication Service. In cases where you feel threatened or believe someone else is in danger, you should contact your local law enforcement agency immediately. If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor or 911 immediately.
When you use a Community and Communication Service, you agree not to:
We may (but are not obligated) do any or all of the following without notice:
You agree that you must evaluate, and bear all risks associated with, the use of any Content, including any reliance on the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of such Content. You acknowledge, consent and agree that we may investigate your use of a Community and Communication Service in order to determine whether a violation of the Terms of Use has occurred or to comply with any applicable law, regulation, governmental request or legal process.
You agree and acknowledge that the processing and transmission of a Community and Communication Service, including your Content, may involve transmissions over various networks and devices and necessary modifications as required for such transmissions.
If you are affiliated with the U.S. government, then you should know that the software and documentation available on our Web Sites are "commercial items," as that term is defined in 48 C.F.R. 2.101 (October 1995), consisting of "commercial computer software" and "commercial computer software documentation," as such terms are used in 48 C.F.R. 12.212 (September 1995). Consistent with 48 C.F.R. 12.212 and 48 C.F.R. 227.7202-1 through 27.7202-4 (June 1995), all U.S. government end users acquire the software and documentation with only those rights set forth herein.
Your correspondence or business dealings with, or participation in promotions of, advertisers found on or through the Service, including payment and delivery of related goods or services, and any other terms, conditions, warranties or representations associated with such dealings, are solely between you and such advertiser. You agree that we shall not be responsible or liable for any loss or damage of any sort incurred as the result of any such dealings or as the result of the presence of such advertisers on the Service.
We are committed to protecting the privacy of children. You should be aware that the Service is not intended or designed to attract children under the age of 13.
WebMD LLC and Medscape, LLC, control those components of the Service made available through their respective Web sites from their offices within the state of New York in the United States of America. The Service can be accessed from any of the United States and from other countries worldwide. Since the laws of each State or country able to access the Service may differ, by accessing the Service, you, WebMD and Medscape agree that the statutes and laws of the state of New York, without regard to choice of laws principles, will apply to all matters relating to use of the Service. No waiver of any of these Terms and Conditions shall be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such term or condition or any other term or condition. Neither WebMD no Medscape makes any representation that materials made available through the Service are appropriate or available for use in other locations, and accessing them from territories where their contents are illegal is prohibited. Those who choose to access these sites from other locations do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws.
The following provisions survive the expiration or termination of these Terms of Use for any reason whatsoever: Liability, Member Conduct, Proprietary Rights, Indemnity, Laws that Govern this agreement and Consequences.
By accessing materials through the Service or registering you agree with all the terms and conditions of these Terms of Use. We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to change these Terms of Use from time to time, and your continuing use of the Service constitutes your acceptance of and agreement to any changed terms and conditions.
Because we are in the healthcare area, we pay special attention to privacy issues. The purpose of our privacy policy is to identify the information we may collect about you, describe the uses we may make of your information and the security measures we take to protect it, and describe your options for controlling your information. You can review our privacy policy for the Service at http://www.medscape.com/public/privacy.
We may also take any legal action we think is appropriate. If your violation of these Terms of Use causes harm to others, you agree to hold WebMD and Medscape harmless against any liability for that harm. If there is any dispute between us concerning these Terms of Use or your use of the Services, you, WebMD and Medscape agree to submit the dispute to non-binding mediation, followed by binding arbitration. Both the mediation and the arbitration will be governed under the rules of the American Arbitration Association, and the venue for the arbitration will be New York.
You agree that WebMD and/or Medscape, as applicable, may, under certain circumstances and without prior notice, discontinue, temporarily or permanently, the Service (or any part thereof) or eliminate your account, any associated email address, and remove any information you uploaded or provided to the Service with or without notice. Cause for termination shall include, but not be limited to, (a) breaches or violations of these Terms of Use or other incorporated agreements or guidelines, (b) requests by law enforcement or other government agencies, (c) a request by you (self-initiated account deletions), (d) discontinuance or material modification to the Service (or any part thereof), (e) unexpected technical or security issues or problems, (f) extended periods of inactivity, and/or (g) engagement by you in fraudulent or illegal activities. You agree that all terminations for cause shall be made in the sole discretion of WebMD and/or Medscape, as applicable, and that neither WebMD nor Medscape shall be liable to you or any third party for any termination of your account, any associated email address, or access to the Service.
You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold WebMD and Medscape, their respective officers, directors, employees, agents, licensors, and suppliers, harmless from and against any claims, actions or demands, liabilities and settlements including without limitation, reasonable legal and accounting fees, resulting from, or alleged to result from, your violation of these Terms of Use.
If you believe any materials accessible on or from the Service infringe your copyright, you may request removal of those materials (or access thereto) from the Service by contacting the copyright agent (identified below) and providing the following information:
The agent for copyright issues relating to the Service is as follows:
WebMD
Attn: Office of Privacy
1175 Peachtree Street, Suite 2400
100 Colony Square
Atlanta, Georgia 30361
copyright@webmd.net
Or call: 866-788-3097
In an effort to protect the rights of copyright owners, we maintain a policy for the termination, in appropriate circumstances, of subscribers and account holders of the Site who are repeat infringers.
Except as expressly provided in a particular "legal notice" on the Web Site, these Terms of Use constitutes the entire agreement between you, WebMD and Medscape with respect to your use (and prior use) of the Service including, without limitation, a Community and Communication Services and Content.
For questions or concerns about these terms of use, please send an email to MedscapeCustomerSupport@webmd.net
Revision date: These Terms of Use were last updated on January 22, 2010
