1. History

2. References

PearlsReview.com, Incorporated is an online clinical healthcare knowledge base founded in 2002 by Nicholas Lorenzo MD MHCM CPE, Scott Plantz MD FAAEM, and Anne Bueltel Lorenzo BS. The fundamental concept was to create a hybrid healthcare continuing education system that included both live lecture and online learning products. Over the years Pearls Review (PR) has also been known and PearlsReview and Pearlsreview from a marketing standpoint. Previously the Founders of PR were also founders, co-founders, and senior executives for Boston Medical Publishing (BMP, acquired by McGraw-Hill and Jones & Bartlett in 2005) which created the Pearls of Wisdom healthcare clinical review book series and eMedicine (acquired by WebMD in 2006) a specialty physician online knowledge base (ref 1). PR was initially a part of eMedicine but was incorporated separately in November 2002. From its founding until its acquisition by Gannett Communications in 2008 Dr. Lorenzo served as the Chairman, CEO, and Chief Medical Officer; Dr. Plantz served as the President and Project Editor-in-Chief, and Ms. Bueltel Lorenzo served as the Chief Operating Officer. Another BMP and eMedicine alumna, Ms. Kelli DeGraw, served in various administrative and support roles for PR. The PR corporate office was in St. Petersburg FL and its publishing office was initially in Omaha NE and later in Dallas TX.

History

The primary goal of PR was to create both online and live lecture accredited continuing education (CE) courses for nurses. PR was an accredited nursing CE provider as per the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). Separate state nursing CE accreditations were obtained in California and Iowa. These accreditations provided PR CE coverage in all 50 states and were continued after the 2008 Gannett acquisition of PR (ref 2). Although the vast majority of healthcare education content created was for nurses other healthcare professionals also took advantage of these courses including physicians, physical therapists, healthcare executives, among others. Eventually over 1500 of nursing continuing education course hours were created utilizing hundreds of board-certified health professional subject matter experts from around the country. The content and contributor workflow was managed in PR's proprietary online learning management system (LMS). Over 70 online nursing certification review courses were created coupled with 8, one-day live lecture nursing certification review courses (ref 3).

Significant revenues were generated from hospital and healthcare institution online subscriptions as well as federally funded/state administered workforce education grants. PR also created one of the first national webinar teleconference course systems in 2007. Increasing revenues and web traffic attracted multiple potential acquiring companies in 2007-2008. In August 2008 Gannett Communications (parent company of USA Today) acquired PR and rolled it into its healthcare education division, Gannett Healthcare Group (GHG, ref 4). Drs. Lorenzo and Plantz served as senior GHG executives for the ensuing 5-years as part of the acquisition agreement and left the company in 2013. GHG was eventually sold to OnCourse Learning in 2015 (ref 5). OnCourse Learning was subsequently acquired by Bertelsmann in 2018 (ref 6). PR continued as a division all of these companies. Ms. Bueltel Lorenzo has served as a senior executive for GHG, OnCourse Learning, and Bertelsmann (Relias Division).

References

1. eMedicine description. https://higcapital.com/portfolio/company/128

2. Pearls Review nursing continuing education accreditation. http://www.pearlsreview.com/accreditation.aspx

3. Pearls Review product title webpage. http://www.pearlsreview.com

4. Pearls Review acquired by Gannett, see page 5: http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/84/84662/08GCIAnnualReport.pdf

5. OnCourse Learning acquires Gannett Healthcare Group: https://pitchbook.com/newsletter/cip-backed-oncourse-learning-buys-gannett-healthcare-group and http://about.continuingeducation.com/gannett-healthcare-group-acquired-by-oncourse-learning/

6. Bertelsmann acquires OnCourse Learning: https://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/news/2018/09/18/german-media-learning-company-acquires-brookfields.html

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