WebMD plans on launching a Medscape iPhone application during the last week of May or in early June, according to a report over at Medical Marketing & Media that cites a WebMD spokesperson. WebMD already has a free iPhone app for symptom navigation.

The Medscape app will feature a drug reference database and drug interaction checker along with Medscape's specialty-focused professional news. As expected, Medscape continuing medical education (CME) resources will be available as well and these mobile CME credits will be tracked by the app.

On the CME front, WebMD will be facing competition from XM radio station ReachMD, which launched its own CME iPhone app last fall. We caught up with ReachMD earlier this year to discuss their application and other plans for the iPhone.

"The popularity of our iPhone app was astonishing to us," ReachMD's CEO Gary Epstein told us last month. "50,000 people registered for ReachMD after downloading the application on their iPhone to begin using this CME. We have been listed in the top ranks of free iPhone applications in the medical category. In fact, of the 400 or 500 ratings from users in the App Store, the only real complaint so far is that certain doctors want more content that's relevant to their specialty. The approval process to get content on the air the problem, but we already have 35 new shows in the pipeline and every week 12 more hours of new programming goes up to the satellite," Epstein explained.

This month, ReachMD expects to have another iPhone app on the market that enables access to all of its XM Satellite Radio station's content, not just the CME content. During the week ReachMD broadcasts talk radio style conversations about news and trends of interest to the medical industry. This content typically takes the format of doctors discussing issues with doctors, which the company describes as easy listening for physicians.

For more on WebMD's Medscape app, check out this post over at MM&M.