Search for your health's sake

Farmers have special health issues, which is why rural health long has had frontline coverage in Successful Farming magazine and on Agriculture Online. And it's one reason why our editors were pleased to learn that Meredith Corporation, the owner of SF and AGOL (and a passel of other media products) has acquired Healia (www.healia.com), a health information search engine.

Healia is a new tool designed to help consumers and health professionals find the "highest quality and most personally relevant search results," Meredith said in a statement about the acquisition.

Healia differs from Google and other general search engines. It uses what it calls a Quality Index Score, which helps glean the best health information from the Web. Healia enables you to personalize findings with "personal search" filters. These can include your gender, age, and race. The engine uses "advanced semantic technology" to improve the effectiveness of the search.

In some experimenting with the site, I searched for info on use of a newer medication for high blood pressure. One of the features allowed me to sort the findings by "dosage," "uses," and "side effects." Each Healia listing included a description of the "attributes" of the source, including whether it's basic or advanced reading, whether it's professional information, and if it is from an HONCode Site.

Comparing Healia and Google searches on the same keyword for the blood pressure medication, I saw some differences. Google turned up about 409,000 results, while Healia with its more focused search gleaned 923 listings. The top three listings on Google were from the manufacturer of the drug; on Healia it was a Federal Drug Administration source, WebMD, and a drug information database called Druglib.com. Two others of Google's top ten listings were from the same source, Drugs.com, and two were from FDA. Healia's top sources were more varied, and included a drug encyclopedia, the Mayo Clinic, and a pharmacists' organization.

The result of my little experiment is that I know a great deal more about treating high blood pressure with this particular drug. Both Google and Healia led me to a mix of credible sources. But in the end, I felt that Healia worked harder, sorting and labelling information in a more creative way.

Anyway, next time you need to research a health issue, check out Healia and the Rural Health section of Agriculture Online.