Nov. 2, 2009 (PR Newswire) --

ATLANTA, Nov. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- WebMD founder and Discovery Communications' Chief of Global Digital Strategy (Nasdaq: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK), Jeff Arnold, and Dr. Mehmet Oz, a leading cardiac surgeon, health expert and host of "The Dr. Oz Show," announced today the launch of Sharecare, Inc., the first healthcare platform for consumers to ask, learn and act on the questions of health. Sharecare's additional co-founders include, Discovery Communications, Harpo Productions, HSW International (Nasdaq: HSWI), and Sony Pictures Television.

"Sharecare's vision is to build an ecosystem that simplifies the search for health and wellness information by organizing all of the questions of health and providing multiple answers representing different points of view. Our contributors will range from renowned celebrity physicians to acclaimed hospitals of excellence to best selling authors to local caregivers to online healthcare consumers," said Jeff Arnold, who has taken an expanded role at Discovery as Chief of Global Digital Strategy and HowStuffWorks.com Chairman Emeritus, in addition to becoming Chairman and Chief Architect of Sharecare. "Leveraging the power of social networking, our contributors 'share care' through both personal experience and expert knowledge, bringing online healthcare into the 21st Century."

HSW International is developing Sharecare Inc.'s customizable social QA platform, which is built on a comprehensive information architecture. The platform features social and portability tools which will shift the paradigm for interaction between professional and consumer content and seamlessly extend the content experience to other websites.

A subset of the initial questions and answers powered by Sharecare and its expert content contributors is now available in the "Ask Dr. Oz section" on www.doctoroz.com, the website of "The Dr. Oz Show," a nationally syndicated daily series co-produced by Harpo Productions and Sony Pictures Television. Since the launch of "The Dr. Oz Show," Dr. Oz has been receiving thousands of requests daily from people who want his advice and information on their health questions. Dr. Oz is creating a coalition of expert doctors, hospitals and practitioners, all of whom will work together to answer viewers' health questions - creating an even stronger connection between "The Dr. Oz Show" and its viewers. The comprehensive platform is expected to launch on www.Sharecare.com in 2010.

"There is an unprecedented need for accurate, useful and diversified medical information," said Mehmet Oz, M.D. "I have one hour a day with our national television audience but the care of health is a 24 hour, 365 day phenomenon. With Sharecare, we have created a resource that invites everyone from experts to new moms to share valuable insights about our mind, body and soul and with this information comes a combined IQ on health that is greater than the sum of its parts. We invite everyone to join us in building this collective wisdom."

"We are excited to partner in the launch of this ground-breaking, new healthcare platform as it directly aligns with Discovery's strategy of delivering information-based, high-quality content while also strengthening our long-term partnership with Harpo Productions," said Bruce Campbell, President, Digital Media and Corporate Development, Discovery Communications.

Initial Content Contributors

Providing information and resources to answer the questions of health, the initial powerhouse of content providers includes:

-- Hospitals and Academic Medical Centers:  Sharecare creates a global
platform for hospitals to create a further connection with
consumers and share their research. Initial contributors include
several of the leading healthcare providers in the world; Cleveland
Clinic, Johns Hopkins Medicine, and New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

-- Leading health and wellness authors:  Sharecare allows authors to
establish direct relationships with consumers by formatting their
book content into expert answers.  Initial partners include: Dr. Oz
and Dr. Roizen (both Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins Publishers),
Dr.