• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, December 3, 2008

The online health category has become a little more crowded with the launch of BeWell, a health-focused social network.

The site is an offshoot of health media company LLuminari, which was co-founded by CEO Elizabeth Browning and a pair of high-profile doctors: Dr. Nancy Snyderman, chief medical editor at NBC News, who serves as editor in chief of BeWell, and Dr. Susan Love, a surgeon and author of "Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book."

BeWell offers a range of familiar health portal features including expert blogs and moderated communities around specific health topics, articles, videos and online diagnostic tools. It faces daunting competition from incumbent health properties including WebMD, The Everyday Health Network, AOL Health and The Health Central Network.

BeWell aims to differentiate itself through an emphasis on expert advice. "There is an overwhelming amount of medical and health information online, but an absence of guidance in how to interpret it," said Dr. Love in a statement. "BeWell will foster a sense of community...while elevating the level of medical discussion by providing an accessible, valuable and trustworthy voice to guide the conversation."

More than a dozen medical experts are affiliated with the site, including Byllye Avery, activist and founder of the Black Women's Health Imperative, Dr. Laura Jana, pediatrician and co-founder of the Dr. Spock Company and Dr. JoAnn Manson, chief of the division of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Highlighting topics such as breast cancer and pregnancy on the home page, the site also appears to be geared to a female audience.

Separately, WebMD Wednesday announced that it would be partnering with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to create a joint site providing health information on government-regulated products spanning food, medicine and cosmetics.

The new site, webmd.com/fda, will offer the full catalog of consumer updates found on the FDA's own site on topics ranging from heart health to gene therapy to skin care. It will also carry FDA public health alerts.

In an October memorandum of understanding on the deal posted to the FDA.gov site, the agency indicated an interest in finding a wider audience for its content via WebMD. It noted that its own site had 6 million monthly visitors, compared to more than 40 million for WebMD. As of October, the site had 19.6 million visitors, according to comScore.