PHILADELPHIA, March 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

PracticeUpdate tailors information to physician specialties, providing news and journal content selected by expert editors

Elsevier, the leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced the launch of PracticeUpdate, a free website featuring high-quality, relevant medical information and education resources. The site is aimed at the millions of physicians who seek news and articles to help them diagnose and treat their patients. PracticeUpdate (http://www.practiceupdate.com) is free to registered users and supported by advertisers.

PracticeUpdate cuts through volumes of information for its users, who register and create profiles, which enable PracticeUpdate's editorial board to hand-select the peer-reviewed journal content that will help physicians of any specialty generate better outcomes for their patients. PracticeUpdate helps clinicians, who do not have time to run through hundreds of articles published every day, stay current with their industry and their specialties. PracticeUpdate will launch with oncology, cardiology, dermatology, eye care (ophthalmology and optometry), primary care, and urology, with more to be added later this year.

"In addition to selecting the best and most relevant content, our PracticeUpdate experts add their context and perspectives, thereby allowing our readers to discover what really matters for patient care," said Allison Risko, Vice President for Specialty Products, Elsevier. "Our experts hand-select the findings that matter from hundreds of journals and other news sources."

The expert editors-in-chief of PracticeUpdate include Lee S. Schwartzberg MD, FACP (Oncology); Douglas P. Zipes, MD (Cardiology); Robert T. Brodell, MD (Dermatology); Paul B. Freeman, OD, FAAO, FCOVD, and Myron Yanoff, MD (Eye Care co-editors-in-chief); David Rakel, MD (Primary Care); Alan J. Wein, MD, FACS, PhD (Hon) (Urology).

The forerunner for PracticeUpdate is Elsevier's OncologySTAT, which launched in 2007 and was Elsevier's - and the industry's - first free site aimed at oncologists and supported by advertising. Today the OncologySTAT community is composed of about 65,000 healthcare practitioners (other types of physicians, nurses, healthcare workers) in the US and around the world, including more than 8,000 self-identified U.S. oncologists and hematologists. OncologySTAT's registered users will be able to transition to the oncology portal of the new PracticeUpdate to access the same content they have come to expect.

PracticeUpdate and its editorial boards deliver:

• Content geared to clinicians, updated daily
• Weekly scans of premiere medical journals
• News, research, and clinical findings hand-selected from the top research and clinical evidence
• Expert summary and commentary to put the most important and relevant findings into perspective
• Access from any mobile device, including laptops, smartphones, and tablets

In addition, PracticeUpdate will deliver the ability for users to fine-tune their content based on specialty and other interests and will include community features enabling validated physicians to share their practice experiences.

"We're improving on the OncologySTAT user experience by updating the website usability, adding mobile capability, and adding multiple specialities to appeal to more clinicians," Risko said. "PracticeUpdate is edited by experts for clinicians who want a place online to find information based on their interests."

PracticeUpdate operates independently from any particular professional society or sponsor and offers multiple marketing and promotional opportunities, including targeted advertising and sponsorship of specific site sections or content types.

Interested healthcare professionals can register for PracticeUpdate online at http://www.practiceupdate.com. For more information about marketing opportunities, please contact Denis Conlon at d.conlon@elsevier.com.

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About Elsevier
Elsevier is a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include ScienceDirect, Scopus, Reaxys, ClinicalKey and Mosby's Nursing Suite, which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite and MEDai's Pinpoint Review, which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.

A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world-leading provider of professional information solutions in the Science, Medical, Legal and Risk and Business sectors, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).

Media contact
Christopher Capot
Director, Corporate Relations
Elsevier
+1-212-633-3164
c.capot@elsevier.com

SOURCE Elsevier