Our sponsors

At BootsWebMD, we regularly seek sponsorships and advertisements from relevant commercial organisations, manufacturers, and other leaders dedicated to providing health and lifestyle information. Although there is a commercial benefit for BootsWebMD, sponsor information also benefits you, the BootsWebMD user, by providing you with information on health services, therapies, and products available in the marketplace. BootsWebMD provides opportunities for sponsors to bring you their marketing message and information about their products and services by publishing their information or links within our site. For more information, read our Advertising Policy.

We also allow third parties to provide funding for BootsWebMD to independently create information about certain topics in specified health categories. We have listed the differences between these two types of content below and the steps we take to help you understand what the labels mean.

• •  How to identify sponsored or sponsor influenced content
• •  How to identify WebMD content that is funded by a third party
• •  How to identify content that is created with a third party in educational collaboration

When you see "Sponsor" or "Advertorial" on BootsWebMD

To help make sure you understand that this category of content is not BootsWebMD's content, we always label it as "Sponsored" or "Advertorial". Sponsored and "Advertorial" on BootsWebMD is content that has been created by, provided by, or influenced by the named sponsor. While "Sponsored" and "Advertorial" content is subject to BootsWebMD's Advertising Policy, it is not subject to BootsWebMD's Editorial Policy. The Sponsor is responsible for the accuracy and objectivity of Sponsored content. BootsWebMD takes meaningful steps to help ensure that you will not confuse Sponsored content (content that is influenced by the named sponsor) with content that is original BootsWebMD content and is governed by BootsWebMD's Editorial policy, including BootsWebMD Features, BootsWebMD Health News, and other original BootsWebMD editorial content.

For Sponsored content on BootsWebMD, you will find that:

• • All content on BootsWebMD that is created, influenced, or provided by a sponsor is identified with the label "Sponsored by" or "Advertorial From Our Sponsor."
• • Content under this heading is from or created on behalf of the named sponsor. This content is not subject to the BootsWebMD Editorial Policy and is not reviewed by the BootsWebMD Editorial department for accuracy, objectivity, or balance.
• • At the top of each Sponsored or Advertorial page, we place descriptive text to inform you that the content on the page is created, influenced, or provided by the sponsor and is under the named sponsor's sole editorial control.
• • You are always informed that content originates from a sponsor before you click to access it, so you are always making an informed decision to view it. Links to this type of content are always identified with distinctive coloring, will carry the "From our Sponsor" or "Advertorial From our Sponsor" label, and will may also carry the sponsor's name or logo.
• • Within the sponsor's content, there may be links to the sponsor's web site.
• • When links to the sponsor's web site are included in the sponsored pages, BootsWebMD takes meaningful steps to make sure you know that you are visiting another web site. We describe this in more detail in the BootsWebMD privacy policy.
• • The sponsored content carries the copyright of the named sponsor or the rightful copyright owner.
• • The sponsored content includes a descriptive line at the end of the content noting that BootsWebMD does not endorse any specific product, service, or treatment.

When third parties fund the cost of BootsWebMD editorial content

In addition to sponsored content, there are times that third parties offer to provide funding for the creation of BootsWebMD original content without having any influence over it. By allowing the funding of original BootsWebMD editorial content, we can bring you even more great, award-winning information to help you manage your health or make healthy changes to your lifestyle.

In these instances, you will find:

• • We place descriptive text at the top of the page to let you know that BootsWebMD created or selected the content without influence from the company that funded the costs associated with the development and production of it.
• • At the top of each page created with funding from a third party source, we place descriptive text to inform you that the content on the page is created by BootsWebMD under BootsWebMD's sole editorial control.
• • You will generally see the words "funded by" followed by the name of the company that funded the content with a hyper link to the definition of "funded by".
• • Funded by: Content under this heading is funded by a third-party and independently created or chosen by BootsWebMD. This content is subject to the BootsWebMD editorial review process for accuracy, balance and objectivity. The content is not edited or otherwise influenced by the supporting company except with the possible suggestion of the broad topic area. For more information, read the BootsWebMD sponsor policy.

• • In some instances, we will also use one of the following three (3) additional labels to let you know that the content was funded by the named third party
  • •  Brought to you by [Name of third party]
  • •  Support provided by [Name of third party]
  • •  Made possible by a Grant from [Name of third party]

It is important to note that while Sponsors on WebMD are subject to our Advertising Policy, where appropriate, they must also comply with guidelines from regulatory agencies like the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA).

Last Updated: March 2011

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