Who can access and post to Medscape Consult?

Medscape Consult is available for use by physicians from around the world and eligible medical students. Access for additional allied health professionals may be provided in future releases. Medscape Consult is not intended for use by healthcare consumers.

Where (on which platforms) is Medscape Consult available?

Medscape Consult is currently available exclusively to physicians and eligible medical students on Medscape.com and Medscape App for iPhone (iOS 13 or above) and Android (version 7 or above).

How does Medscape Consult protect patient privacy?

Medscape Consult has a multi-prong approach for protecting patient privacy, including:

• Notifying all users that they must remove any and all personally identifiable information from images prior to posting.
• Providing editing tools to help users ensure that their images do not contain personally identifiable information.
• Moderating all posts, ensuring that any images with personally identifiable data are promptly taken down.
• Enabling users to flag images that they think may be in violation of patient privacy.

We also recommend that physician users become familiar with their institution's rules on obtaining and sharing de-identified patient information. With Medscape Consult, images are not required. Community members can choose to ask a question or share textual case content as well.

How can medical professionals use Medscape Consult?

Content available through Medscape Consult is intended for informational purposes. Community members should exercise their own professional and clinical judgment in evaluating the information provided by Medscape and our users. We encourage you to confirm with other sources before undertaking any treatment based on such information.

What features are available through Medscape Consult?

• Medical Community
  Leverage the medical community for answers and follow experts
• Medical Images
  Upload and browse de-identified clinical images
• CME
  Earn CME (continuing medical education) credits by reading CME-designated case or discussion posts, reviewing the associated background reference, and completing a short exercise
• Sortable Feed
  Search and discover relevant posts by helpfulness or specialty
• Up and Down Voting
  Upvotes/downvotes are driven by the Medscape Consult community. The purpose of an upvote is to say, "this is a high-quality post or comment." It's a recommendation. Downvotes identify posts or comments that may be of a lower clinical quality.
• Connections
  Build your profile and connect with peers.
• Notifications
  Immediate notification when your question receives a reply

Where is the case outcome?

Consult is a crowdsourced community of physicians and medical students. Community members often post cases while their patients' treatment is ongoing, seeking clinical guidance from peers. We encourage Consult contributors to provide updates and outcomes whenever possible.

Here are some suggestions for finding case updates and outcomes on Consult:

• FOLLOW A CASE: If you use the Medscape App and follow a case, you will receive push notifications on your phone when there are comments on these cases. (Please note: Currently, you will receive a notification for every reply. To turn off notifications, unfollow the case.)
• FEATURED TAB: Look for the case in the "Featured" feed. We add "RESOLVED" or "UPDATE" when a case author has posted an outcome, and we duplicate the response at the top of the comment thread. This tab also features cases with expert recommendations.
• AUTHOR PROFILE: Visit the case author's profile (click on the name) and look in the "Responses" feed to find updates and outcomes on specific cases from that author. If you follow an author, you can also find posts by navigating to your profile and then selecting the author's name from your "Following" list.
• ASK THE AUTHOR: Comment on a post, requesting that the author add an outcome.

How can I update my posts?

You may update your own posts or mark them as resolved.

Look for "Add Update +" button underneath your post. From there you can add new case details or check the box "Is the case resolved". This is a great way to alert followers about new case information and outcomes.

How can I post and edit an image?

When creating a post, click on the plus icon (+) to take a new photo or select an existing image from your iPhone library. Once your image is selected, you may choose black or red ink and preferred size to block identifiable information or otherwise markup the image. Note that support for video files will be added in the future.

How can I change my notification settings?

To modify notifications, Medscape App users with an iPhone should: (1) tap on the Settings icon on their iPhone; (2) locate and click on the Medscape App; (3) click on Notifications; and (4) choose whether to "Allow Notifications". You can also select to customize your notification preferences, such as enabling sound alerts. In the future, Medscape will provide additional notification options for browser (non-App) users.

What is the purpose of 'tags' on my posting?

Tags help users quickly understand the relevant topic areas covered by a given post. Medscape can also utilize tags to target relevant content to a specific user base. Users can select and add tags when posting on Consult. Medscape may choose to add or remove tags during moderation review.

Why don't I see Consult in the Medscape App on my device?

To access Medscape Consult, you must be a registered user of Medscape. For eligible users, Consult appears as the fourth link in the Medscape.com header - beneath the Medscape logo on a desktop browser or accessible via the site menu dropdown in a mobile browser. To access Consult via the Medscape App, you must be running the latest version of the App on an iPhone or iPod Touch. The feature is not yet available to users of the Medscape App on Android or Apple iPad.

To verify that you're running the latest version, navigate to the App Store on your iPhone and search for Medscape. If the first result ("Medscape" by WebMD) has a button labeled "Open" link next to it, you're running the latest version. If the button is labeled "Update" or "Get" then you'll need to update or install the app on your device.

Why is my post not appearing on Consult?

In order to ensure that Consult is focused on clinical utility, Medscape may choose to remove posts that do not adhere to our editorial guidelines. This may include posts that are non-clinical or otherwise not professional in tone. In addition, posts should not refer to individuals who can be identified from the information provided, including a user's personal health information and that of family members.

Currently all posts to Consult must be in English to accommodate editorial moderation.

How can I provide feedback on Consult?

Help us make Medscape Consult the best possible clinical resource. Contact us at consult@medscape.net to share your ideas, questions, or comments.

How do I become a Medscape author?

If you are interested in contributing to Medscape, please contact us at authoring@medscape.net.