ZipMed.com and Reuters Health Information Launch Daily Streaming Webcast of Top Consumer Health News.

FORT MYERS, Fla., Sept. 11 /PRNewswire/ --

ZipMed.com, Inc., a streaming media company serving online healthcare, and Reuters Health Information, Inc., the Internet's most trusted source of health news and information, today announced the launch of the Reuters Health Daily AudioCast, a daily streaming webcast version of the popular Reuters Health eLine news service.

Streaming media allows Internet users to experience live and on-demand audio, video and other multimedia programming on their computers.

Under the agreement, ZipMed.com will convert the consumer-focused Reuters Health eLine content into digital audio to create an on-demand streaming version of the service. Similar in concept to a traditional syndicated health radio program, the audiocast featuring the day's top health stories will be available to web sites on a subscription basis. The companies are jointly premiering the new program at their web sites, www.zipmed.com and www.reutershealth.com.

Among its portfolio of health news services, Reuters Health Information currently supplies more than 100 sites with a text-based version of Health eLine. The innovative new streaming health news program, which the companies will jointly promote and market, will provide approximately 50 streaming stories a week to subscriber sites. ZipMed will webcast the program via its satellite-based distribution network provider iBEAM Broadcasting Corp.

"We're very pleased to bring this exciting new program to the Web," said ZipMed CEO R. Douglas Zipperer. "It's a natural convergence of media and technology. This type of important programming from a trusted source like Reuters Health will help people to keep up with the latest breaking health news in a whole new way."

The streaming version of Health eLine will extend Reuters' online impact and enhance its offerings with rich-media content. "ZipMed has put the infrastructure in place to make it easy for Reuters Health to deliver our news in audio over the Internet. This expanded service will also benefit millions of sight-impaired Internet users who want to stay current on advances in health and medicine," said Dan McKillen, President and CEO of Reuters Health Information, Inc.