Pediatrics Now™ launches a new, innovative health information web site for today’s busy families.

Wayland, MA – January 23, 2006. Pediatrics Now today announced the official launch of www.Pediatricsnow.com. Founded in 2005 by health columnist and pediatrician Dr. Gwenn S. O’Keeffe, Pediatrics Now provides “practical health information for today’s busy families”. Pediatrics Now contains not only health information about parenting and child health and development, it allows parents to get answers to questions and find useful health resources quickly. Additionally, Pediatrics Now serves as a resource for other sources of health information on the web and books of interest to today’s parents and kids on a variety of health and wellness topics. Pediatrics Now is already planning expansion to a more interactive site with the development of PediBlog and KidZoneNewz both of which will be rolled out early in 2006.

For health care professionals, Pediatrics Now offers a variety of health writing services as well as helping to bridge the gap between busy pediatricians and their patient’s. “I know first hand how difficult it is to give families the information I want them to have during a visit”, comments Dr. O’Keeffe. “Pediatrics Now actually got its roots from my desire to give my patients and their families a place online to get that information”.

About Pediatrics Now

Pediatrics Now was founded in 2005 by Gwenn Schurgin O’Keeffe, M.D., F.A.A.P. As a mother and pediatrician, Dr. O’Keeffe saw a void in consumer health information for today’s busy families and began her quest to get practical health information out to as many local parents as possible. Since beginning this quest, Dr. O’Keeffe’s health columns have appeared in the Burlington Union, Salem News, MetroWest Daily News, and the award winning Parents and Kids.

With the world almost exclusively online, Dr. O’Keeffe decided to create a place to share her columns with as many families as desire to read them and created a e-community where families could interact together and learn from each other. Dr. O’Keeffe pictured a virtual small New England town, served up on each family’s computers. “Parents are now too busy to even ‘do coffee’ with each other, let alone search the web for health information”, notes Dr. O’Keeffe. “But we can do a ‘virtual cup’ every now and then with the health information they are looking for all in one place”.

Features of Pediatrics Now include health information for parents and kids, health tools and charts such as growth charts and immunization schedules, a forum to ask questions and get answers and will soon feature an interactive blog, PediBlog, as well as an expanded page for kids and teens called KidZoneNewz.

“Our readers greatly benefit from Dr. O'Keeffe's monthly columns in Parents and Kids”, says Heather Kempskie, Editor, Parents and Kids which was recently awarded 3rd place for Best Parenting Publication from Suburban Newspapers of America. “With her varied background in pediatric care, she's able to tackle issues on both the medical and behavioral front and does so by delivering it in a comprehensive and friendly manner. It’s like having a relaxed one-on-one conversation with your child's pediatrician - which doesn't happen often enough!”

Pediatrics Now also provides professional medical and health writing services. More information on Pediatrics Now’s Professional Services can be found at www.pediatricsnow.com/professional_services.html.

About Dr. Gwenn, Health Columnist

Gwenn Schurgin O’Keeffe, MD, is a board-certified pediatrician and Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. She is on staff at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, MA, and practices pediatrics in the Metrowest Boston area.

Dr. Gwenn is an experienced columnist, educator, and practicing pediatrician. After graduating from Tufts University School of Medicine and completing her pediatrics Internship and Residency at New England Medical Center in Boston, MA, Dr. Gwenn practiced in Illinois and was an Assistant Professor at the Finch University of Health Sciences/The Chicago Medical School, in North Chicago, Illinois. While at Finch University, Dr. Gwenn developed an entirely new pediatric curriculum for the Physician Assistant Program as well as a unique pediatric curriculum for the Pediatric Medicine Clerkship.

Upon returning to Massachusetts in 2000, Dr. Gwenn focused her passion for pediatric education on the families she cared for in her practice and began to explore column writing. Since that time, Dr. Gwenn’s columns have appeared in the Burlington Union as well as Salem News, Parents and Kids and Metrowest Daily News. Dr. Gwenn is also regularly quoted in national parenting magazines as a pediatric expert.

Dr. Gwenn strives to write as if she were talking to a parent. As a parent herself, she knows how important it is to obtain information but also understands how precious little time parents have to find that information on the internet. Dr. Gwenn founded Pediatrics Now to fill that gap and help build a bridge between the parenting and pediatric worlds.

Pediatrics Now and Dr. Gwenn are today’s busy family’s solution for finding reliable health information on the web.

Web site: www.pediatricsnow.com.

For more information contact:
Gwenn Schurgin O’Keeffe, M.D., F.A.A.P.
CEO
Pediatrics Now
P.O. Box 5336
Wayland, MA 01778
Phone: 508-545-1210
Email: drgwenn@pediatricsnow.com

© 2005-2006 Pediatrics Now. All rights reserved. PEDIATRICS NOW is a trademark of Pediatrics Now