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Medscape turns 30 in 2025. To mark this milestone, the Medscape 2050 project looks at what the field of medicine may look like 25 years from now. But the future is also shaped by the past. Below we look at the previous 30 years through the lens of Medscape News’ coverage of the headlines and events that helped define medicine since 1995.

May 22, 1995: Medscape Launches

Remember what the early days of the internet were like? That’s Medscape, launched out of a tiny office in Manhattan on May 22, 1995, by a scrappy group of people who had a great idea for a website to serve a physician readership. Here’s what those early days were like.

1996: Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) Revolutionizes HIV/AIDS Treatment

John G. Bartlett, MD, offers a thorough breakdown of HAART’s evolution, with notable mention of a certain director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Anthony Fauci. Ten years after this breakthrough, Medscape continued in-depth coverage, including this long Q&A with Richard Elion, MD.

March 27, 1998: Viagra Approved by the FDA

The first oral treatment for erectile dysfunction became a cultural phenomenon and, from a news perspective, the gift that kept on giving, leading to ongoing coverage not just in the ensuing years but for decades — including evidence 26 years later that the little blue pill may help prevent Alzheimer’s.

1999: Vioxx and COX-2 Inhibitors Introduced

The arrival of the new class of painkillers was less newsworthy than what followed later, with Vioxx linked to heart risks and pulled from the market. The fallout brought harsh questions about its initial FDA approval.

March 2003: SARS Outbreak

The global epidemic led to the first modern pandemic response, and just like the pandemic that would follow 17 years later, it spurred ongoing Medscape coverage that may seem quaint in retrospect.

May 2005: Medscape Celebrates 10 Years

Our 10th anniversary brought a comprehensive reckoning of some of the major medical advances from 1995 to 2004, including analysis of impactful stories across all specialties.

November 24-25, 2005: First Successful Face Transplant Performed

A new day for reconstructive surgery when surgeons grafted the donor nose, lips, and chin to the face of a 38-year-old French woman whose lips and nose were ripped off in a dog attack. The breakthrough procedure led to a sharp debate about whether the surgery should have happened at all.

2009: H1N1 (Swine Flu) Pandemic

Six years after SARS, H1N1 gave us the first official flu pandemic in decades, prompting massive vaccine production, as well as inevitable comparisons to the 1918 pandemic, with the two strains, separated by 91 years, sharing similar features.

March 23, 2010: Affordable Care Act (ACA) Signed Into Law in the US

President Obama’s signature legislation was a seismic health policy shift increasing insurance access. The law has been scrutinized (and challenged) ever since. Meanwhile, more than 24 million people signed up for ACA Marketplace Coverage for 2025, a new record.

2013: Angelina Jolie’s BRCA1 Op-ed Spurs Genetic Testing Boom

Celebrities can single-handedly transform public discourse on health issues, and Jolie did just that with hereditary cancer risk. As a result of the “Angelina Jolie Effect,” BRCA testing doubled.

2014: Ebola Outbreak in West Africa

While the outbreak highlighted weaknesses in global public health infrastructure, Medscape highlighted what US clinicians needed to know — as well as what they didn’t know. In September, the WHO convened a 2-day meeting in Geneva to discuss therapies derived from survivors’ blood.

October 26, 2019: US Declares Opioid Epidemic a National Health Emergency

Addiction treatment, regulation, and pharmaceutical accountability all became part of public medical discourse as part of the outcry to declare a state of emergency on opioids. President Trump eventually declared the crisis a national public health emergency. In 2019, opioid-related deaths reached almost 72,000, a new high. Death rates continued to rise well into 2020.

2019: Measles Outbreaks Reemerge Due to Vaccine Hesitancy

A global spike in cases, especially in the US and Europe, foreshadowed measles news in 2025, but physicians were just as concerned then about the measles and vaccine hesitancy.

2020: COVID-19 Global Pandemic Declared

Perhaps the biggest medical news event in Medscape’s history, and as you can see, this selection of six headlines offers a telling timeline of just what was going on — what we knew and a whole lot we didn’t….

March 11, 2020, WHO declares COVID-19 a pandemic

So You Have a COVID-19 Patient; How Do You Treat Them?

COVID-19: Time to ‘Take the Risk of Scaring People’

A Decade of Telemedicine Policy Has Advanced in Just 2 Weeks

Year of COVID: Everything We Thought We Knew Was Wrong

‘Death by 1000 Cuts’: Medscape National Physician Burnout & Suicide Report 2021

June 24, 2022: US Overturns Roe v. Wade (Dobbs Decision)

One of the most impactful legal decisions in US history with major implications for reproductive healthcare. Aside from the news itself, the decision spurred Medscape coverage on both sides of the issue in the medical world.

Ob/Gyns on the Day That Roe v. Wade Was Overturned

Pro-Life Ob/Gyns Say Dobbs Not End of Abortion Struggle

Roe v. Wade: Medical Groups React to Supreme Court Decision

February 2025: Trump Administration Announces Significant Cuts to Medical Research Funding

The administration imposed a 15% cap on “indirect costs” for NIH grants, reducing funds allocated for overhead expenses such as facilities and administrative support. But that was just one aspect of the cuts announced, reversed, or left in place, causing fear and uncertainty in the medical science community.

What Happens When Science Stops

Exodus of Infectious Disease Experts Imperils Public Safety

Exclusive-Trump Health Layoffs Include Staff Overseeing Bird Flu Response, Source Says

2025: Measles Outbreak Response Hindered by Confusion

A surge in measles cases across several states drove Medscape coverage, aiding clinicians who may have never seen a case of measles in their career while also detailing just how unprepared physicians and public health officials are for this widening crisis.

Read more about transformative science and technology news over the past 30 years in a companion piece to this story, Medscape at 30: Three Decades of Amazing Breakthroughs.