Healthline’s homepage lists 130 medical reviewers in its network and 50 million monthly readers. Its parent, Healthline Media, calls itself the number one health information publisher in the US. Those two numbers explain how to get featured on Healthline better than any pitch template: an enormous audience, guarded by a review network that checks every claim.
That combination makes the site hard to reach with a sales pitch and very reachable with real expertise. It is a filter, and filters favor the prepared. The rest of this guide shows how the network works, what we call the Reviewer-Ready Profile, and the specific routes in for practitioners and for brands.
Who Healthline actually quotes
Healthline Media is an RVO Health company, and its family of sites includes Medical News Today and Psych Central. Each runs its own editorial operation, but they share an approach that shows up in their footers and policy pages: content written by experienced health writers, reviewed by professionals, and kept up to date. Healthline publishes dedicated pages on medical affairs and content integrity that lay out those standards.
Read a dozen Healthline articles in your field and you will see three kinds of voices.
The first is the medical reviewer, named near the byline. Reviewers are credentialed professionals matched to the topic: a registered dietitian on a nutrition piece, a board-certified dermatologist on a skin article, a licensed therapist on a mental health guide. Their names and credentials sit at the top of the page, which makes the reviewer role the most visible position a practitioner can hold on the site.
The second is the quoted expert. News pieces and some features quote clinicians and researchers directly, especially when a new study comes out. These experts are usually affiliated with a hospital, a university, or a recognized practice, and their quotes add context to the research rather than selling anything.
The third is the cited source. Every Healthline article ends with references, and those references are mostly peer-reviewed studies, government health agencies, and professional associations. If your work is published in a journal or adopted in guidelines, you can be part of a Healthline article without ever being contacted.
Remember the sister sites, too. Medical News Today leans toward research news, Psych Central toward mental health, and each has its own editors and writers. A pitch that does not fit Healthline’s format may be a natural fit for one of them, and being cited across the family strengthens your footprint more than a single mention.
What you will almost never see is a company founder quoted making claims about their own product. Healthline’s model has no place for that voice, which is why so many brand pitches go nowhere.
Health topics also change fast. A nutrition guide that cited one set of studies in 2022 may cite a different set today, and Healthline updates pages when evidence moves. That creates a steady stream of chances for experts whose work is current, and a steady risk for brands whose claims rest on old research.
The Reviewer-Ready Profile
Before you contact anyone, build what we call the Reviewer-Ready Profile. It is a short checklist of things an editor will look for in the minute they spend checking whether you are credible. Every item should be findable on the open web.
Start with a verifiable credential. Your license, board certification, or registration should be checkable through the issuing body. If an editor cannot confirm it in a public database or on your employer’s site, it does not count.
Next comes a consistent professional bio. Your hospital, clinic, or university bio, your LinkedIn profile, and your own website should agree on your name, title, credential, and focus area. Mismatched titles slow editors down, and slow means they pick someone else.
Then add a clear specialty. “Registered dietitian focused on gut health and IBS” is easier to place than “nutrition expert.” Editors match reviewers and sources to topics, so a narrow, accurate specialty gets you assigned more often than a broad one.
After that comes a public body of work. Published papers, guideline contributions, conference talks, or prior media quotes show you can explain science to a general audience. Even three or four solid mentions help, which is why we often build this layer for clients through earned placements before any health desk pitch.
Finally, make sure there are no red flags. Product endorsements with exaggerated claims, a social feed full of miracle cures, or a history of selling unproven treatments will end the conversation. Editors search your name before they quote you. Make sure what they find helps. Search your own name in a private window, then ask ChatGPT and Perplexity who you are. If the answers are thin, outdated, or confused with someone else, fix that before you pitch, because an editor will see the same thing.
Here is what a finished profile looks like. Picture a registered dietitian named Maya Chen (a composite for illustration). Her clinic bio, LinkedIn, and website all list “MS, RD, CDCES, specializing in type 2 diabetes nutrition.” Her registration is searchable through the Commission on Dietetic Registration. She has two co-authored papers, a talk at a state dietetics conference, and four quotes in regional news. Her Instagram shares meal ideas and explains studies without selling supplements. An editor can confirm all of it in under two minutes. That is the bar.
Score yourself on these five, one point each. Most practitioners who struggle to get quoted have a strong credential and a weak public footprint, which is a fixable problem.
Three ways in for practitioners
Once your profile is ready, there are three practical routes.
The first is the reviewer network. Healthline’s 130 reviewers come from somewhere, and the network grows as the site’s coverage grows. Look for medical reviewer and expert network openings through Healthline’s careers and contact pages, and through RVO Health’s job listings, since review roles are often posted there. When you apply, lead with the topics you can review and the evidence that you can do it accurately and on time.
The second is reporter queries. Healthline and its sister sites cover new research, and writers need experts who can explain what a study means within hours. Join query platforms such as Qwoted and Featured, set alerts for your specialty, and answer only the questions you are qualified to answer. A strong answer names your credential and affiliation, responds in three or four plain sentences, and offers a follow-up call. Fast and accurate beats long and impressive. Most writers on a news deadline take the first few qualified answers and stop reading.
A usable answer might look like this. Query: “Is intermittent fasting safe for people with type 2 diabetes?” Reply: “Maya Chen, MS, RD, CDCES, Riverside Diabetes Center. It can be, but only with medical supervision, because people on insulin or sulfonylureas can have dangerous lows when they skip meals. The safer first step is a consistent overnight fast of about 12 hours, which most people can do without changing medication. Available for a call this afternoon.” It answers the question, names the risk, gives a practical step, and stays inside the dietitian’s scope.
The third is direct relationships with writers. Read the bylines on recent Healthline articles in your field. Many health writers are freelancers who write for several outlets, so a relationship with one writer can reach several publications. Introduce yourself with a short note that names one recent article of theirs, explains what you could add on a related topic, and links to your bio. Then send nothing until you have something useful for them, such as a new study they would want to cover.
A word on the reviewer route in particular. Review work is paid, structured, and deadline-driven. You read a draft, check each claim against current evidence, flag errors, and sign off. Editors keep reviewers who return clean feedback on time and quietly stop assigning to those who do not. If you take on reviews, treat them like clinical documentation: precise, sourced, and finished when promised.
All three routes reward the same behavior: accuracy, speed, and staying inside your scope. A dermatologist who comments on cardiology loses credibility on both.
If you are a brand, not a clinician
Brands have a harder path, but it is not closed. It also matters more than it used to, because Healthline is one of the sources AI assistants lean on for health answers. When someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity which magnesium supplement to try, the answer often draws on publishers like Healthline. A mention there can travel into AI answers your buyers read, which is a big reason health brands now care about how to get featured on Healthline at all. The key is to stop pitching the product and start supplying what Healthline needs.
Commerce and nutrition content is where products appear. Editors build roundups of supplements, foods, devices, and wellness products, and they evaluate items against their own standards. To be considered, your product needs clear labeling, third-party testing where relevant, and claims that match the evidence. A brand that can send a certificate of analysis and a list of the studies behind each claim is far easier to include than one that sends a lifestyle press kit.
Experts inside your company are your second route. If you employ a registered dietitian, a pharmacist, or a physician, build their Reviewer-Ready Profile and let them be quoted on general health topics, without product plugs. Their visibility lifts your brand indirectly, and it lasts longer than a single mention.
Timing helps here. Health awareness months, such as Heart Month in February or Mental Health Awareness Month in May, are planned well ahead by editors. If your product or expert fits one, reach out two to three months early with evidence in hand, not two weeks before.
Original research is the third. A well-designed study or survey with a credible partner, published methods, and a clinician to interpret it can become a news story on Healthline or Medical News Today. Small surveys of your own customers rarely qualify, and neither do studies funded and run entirely in-house without independent review. If you commission research, publish the full methods and data, and expect writers to ask who paid for it.
What will not work is paying for editorial coverage or pitching unsupported claims. Healthline sells advertising through separate channels, and its editorial staff does not respond to placement offers.
So, in short: understand that every word on Healthline passes a credentialed reviewer, build a profile that reviewer would approve, pick the route that fits your role, and supply evidence instead of adjectives. That is how to get featured on Healthline, and it is the same discipline that earns coverage across every serious health publisher.