US based internet registry dotHealth has today announced the launch of the .HEALTH domain for medical websites. The intention behind .HEALTH’s release is for the healthcare industry and medical professionals to run websites with a TLD that signifies reliable health information.
In order to register for a .HEALTH domain, applicants first have to validate that they are fully qualified, active members of the medical industry. After being successfully verified, applicants will then have to receive an Industry Access token from an undisclosed healthcare-related organization that has partnered with dotHealth. Additionally, internet watchdog LegitScript has been tasked to ensure websites that adopt the .HEALTH extension provide authentic and legitimate medical information.
Speaking at the .HEALTH launch event, CEO of dotHealth, Jose Ignacio Rasco, highlights the importance of the new TLD:
While education has .edu and organizations have .org, there has never been an identifiable place people could go for focused, meaningful health information online. Searching for health information is the 3rd most common online activity, so we’re excited to address this problem and have .HEALTH be the home for health online.
During the initial phase of the launch, trademark holders were given exclusive access to secure their .HEALTH domain names, with medical and tech industry leaders like Mayo Clinic, Pfizer, Google, Amazon and Apple among those to file applications.
Currently, research indicates that websites catering to the healthcare industry are spread out over the .Com, .Org and .Edu TLDs.