eMedicine, Inc. & Conceptis Technologies acquired by WebMD.

WebMD Health Corp. (New York), a provider of health information services to consumers and physicians, has completed the acquisition of eMedicine, Inc. (Omaha, NE), an online publisher of medical reference information for physicians and other healthcare professionals, for $25.5 million.

Launched in 1996, WebMD said that eMedicine includes the largest and most current clinical knowledge database available to physicians and healthcare professionals. Nearly 10,000 physician authors and editors contribute to the eMedicine Clinical Knowledge Base, which carries articles on the diagnosis and treatment of 7000 diseases and disorders, including 30,000 multimedia files. The evidence-based content provides practice guidelines in 59 medical specialties. A separate subscription site (iMedicine.com) is available for institutions.

WebMD ceo Wayne Gattinella said the acquired company complements current offerings and "in combination with Medscape, eMedicine.com will strengthen our reach and expand the breadth and depth of our online clinical reference information."

Also, WebMD has completed the acquisition of Conceptis Technologies (Montreal, PQ), a provider of online and offline medical education and promotion for physicians and related healthcare professionals. Conceptis focuses on the medical fields of cardiology, nephrology and rheumatology and operates a series of professional Web portals, including theheart.org, jointandbone.org and thekidney.org. In addition to news and research, the sites provide continuing medical education, physical education, research extracts and online forums.

WebMD, a unit of Emdeon Corp. (Tampa, FL) provides health information services for consumers, physicians, healthcare professionals, employers and health plans through public and private online portals and health-focused publications. The company had 2005 revenues of approximately $6 million with a break even net income.