Notice anything missing from Avvo today? That’s right, the doctors are gone. In a return to its roots, Avvo has sold off its directory of medical doctors and its health Q&A forums and will once again focus solely on the legal profession.

Avvo derives its name from the Italian word for lawyer, and lawyers were its sole focus when the legal directory and Q&A site launched in 2006. In 2010, Avvo took on the medical profession, adding profiles and ratings of medical doctors and creating a medical site that paralleled its legal site.

Yesterday, Avvo announced that it had sold its medical business to HealthTap, a company that develops mobile apps to connect doctors and medical consumers.  In a press release announcing the sale, Avvo’s founder and CEO Mark Britton explained:

Avvo’s legal business is booming, and with the recent launch of Avvo Ignite client conversion solution for attorneys, we’ve decided to focus 100% of our attention on expanding our consumer legal services and helping lawyers grow their business. Just as Avvo is the premier destination for people looking for legal advice, HealthTap is the leading source for trusted answers to health questions and peer-reviewed medical professionals, which makes HealthTap the right choice to carry on the conversation between consumers and medical professionals.

Just last week, we wrote about Avvo’s new iPhone and iPad app and, earlier this month, we covered the launch of Avvo Ignite, its suite of legal marketing tools.

Photo of Bob Ambrogi Bob Ambrogi

Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.