HealthLine, a very smart medical search engine with web 2.0 features, launched this evening. Tony Gentile, HealthLine’s VP Product Management, writes about it here.
First, its a good search engine. Normal language is translated into medical terms, and refinement options are shown for related information. For instance, a search for breast cancer shows refinement options for “treatment” and “symptoms”, as well as links to the broader search of “cancer”.
The HealthMaps feature is incredibly useful. It is a visual display of information relevant to your query. Do a search for “cancer” and click on the top left link just above the first result to see this. Clicking on any of the visual cues will give additional refined information. You can also see the HealthMap feature in the screen shot above.
Refinements, along with HealthMaps, is a very good way to find relevant information with a single search on a term even loosely related to the information you are looking for.
Healthline also offers browsing by channel, with topics ranging from Acne to Yeast Infections.
If you become a member, you can create news alerts, and tag and save search results. You can also write reviews of articles and rate other reviews.
This is an excellent resource.
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