Medstar was incorporated in Pennsylvania in 1981 by Paul Dowling and William Ferretti to produce medical news and health information.

[3] One of its first was Health Matters, a program on health and lifestyle issues, produced in cooperation with hospitals throughout the United States, which sponsor the program in their local areas with local and national content, along the same lines as PM Magazine.

[4] Medstar later expanded to produce two medical news products, "MedstarSource" and "MedstarAdvances" syndicated to commercial television stations in the United States.

In 1990, Medstar began to produce programming for cable television including the Discovery Channel, HBO, and TLC.

In 1995, the company created the Medical Detectives series on forensic science, which premiered on TLC in April 1995.