• by Tameka Kee , March 13, 2008

Aetna has tapped Healthline Networks to power Aetna SmartSource, a health search engine that combines patient data with info from a variety of Aetna's Web resources to create a more relevant and easy-to-navigate experience.

Currently in closed beta (being tested by some 30,000 Aetna employees), Aetna members will be able to search for information based on their own health plan, age and other factors, and get insights on in-network local doctors and support programs, commonly used medications and alternative treatment options, as well as estimated health-care costs.

This way, a search for "diabetes" by a 50-year-old white male from Rochester, N.Y. would return different info than a 16-year-old black female from Chicago. Each member would receive results that were tailored to the medications they were already taking, along with recommendations for treatments or programs that were covered under their plan.

Aetna SmartSource integrates the member's health profile with info from properties like Aetna InteliHealth--the insurance provider's Web site that includes content from sources including Harvard Medical School--and DocFind, Aetna's directory of doctors, specialists and health-care facilities. And according to West Shell III, Healthline Networks chairman and CEO, the engine is more effective because it's powered by Healthline's proprietary contextual medical search technology.

"Aetna had the problem that a number of portals and publishers have. They've got all this great content, but it's not connected. There's no intelligence behind it--no way to navigate easily. There are just these silos of content, tools and resources." Shell said. "So they asked us to help take member health records and data to develop a personalized search platform--one that's easy to navigate and not overwhelming."

Shell said the technology is what has spurred companies like AOL, Ask and iVillage to adopt its health search platform--and even led some "big pharma" companies to look to Healthline as a consultant during the development of their consumer-facing Web sites.

And he's banking on that brand affinity to help make Healthline's newest venture a success--a health-focused ad network. "We're going to partners and saying, you've trusted us to deliver your health info because our technology understands how to match the right content to the consumer. Why not let us deliver advertising that can help monetize all or part of your inventory," Shell said. "And we're moving on this pretty aggressively."

Shell says that Healthline's ad network should be up and running in the latter half of the year, and that the company's track record and search platform is what will help it stand out from the crowd of similar networks like HealthCentral and Everyday Health.

"Because of our history, our technology is able to understand the relationships between drugs, symptoms and conditions, as well as things like hospital reimbursement codes," Shell said. "So we can do a much better job than anyone else in the market at matching the advertising to the right content."