Healthline Networks Announces Consumer Surgical Procedures Guide (SPG)

Interactive tool uses U.S. Government public health data to create the most comprehensive guide to surgical procedure resources on the Web

SAN FRANCISCO, CA and WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 8, 2011 - Healthline Networks, the fastest growing provider of intelligent health information services, today revealed a prototype of the new Healthline Surgical Procedures Guide (SPG). Unveiled at the Health Data Initiative Forum in Washington, D.C., Healthline's SPG aggregates, examines and translates public health data in a meaningful format to help patients understand what to expect when they decide on a surgical operation. SPG incorporates public data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) to enhance Healthline's robust information resources to create comprehensive Learning Centers. Through the use of Healthline's rich media tools – videos, 3D animations and the human body interactive 3D visual search tool, Healthline BodyMaps – Surgical Procedures Guide helps consumers at every step of the patient pathway – from considering a surgery, to preparing for the procedure, as well as post-operative recovery and rehabilitation.

Displayed in an easy-to-navigate interactive learning environment, SPG makes medical information accessible and informs patients on important decision factors including cost of care, length of hospital stay, and hospital quality ratings. To personalize the SPG experience, public data are localized based on the patient's zip code. In addition, SPG algorithms can process and summarize CMS Hospital Compare data to provide "quick scores" that rank performance and average cost of procedures for hospitals near the patient, and from a local, state, and national level.

"Public health data can be very useful for patients when faced with decisions about major surgery, yet historically, this data has been difficult to find and use. Through Healthline's Surgical Procedures Guide, we're surfacing key community health data during the patient pathway in order to provide a personalized experience for patients, which we believe will facilitate more informed health care decision-making" said Maya Capur, Healthline vice president of business development. "Through the use of proven rich-media tools that deepen patient engagement, Healthline's Surgical Procedures Guide pushes relevant and useful data to consumers where they already are – at leading health information websites – rather than expecting them to hunt for it themselves." 

Heathline SPG is the newest offering in Healthline’s suite of products – including SymptomSearch™, DrugSearch™, SmartAnswers™ and BodyMaps™ – designed to provide patients the critical support and credible, trusted health information they need to make more confident and informed decisions about their health care.

About Healthline

Healthline Networks is the fastest growing provider of intelligent health information services, enabling 100 million consumers a month to make more confident, informed healthcare decisions. The company's proprietary consumer healthcare taxonomy, the largest of its kind, powers a suite of intelligent health search, content and advertising services. Combining advanced search technology with deep medical expertise, Healthline partners with a network more than 50 trusted destination sites that include publishers, portals, search engines, employers and health plans. Headquartered in San Francisco and ranked #54 in Deloitte's 2010 Technology Fast 500, Healthline is backed by Aetna, GE/NBC Peacock Fund, Investor Growth Capital, Kaiser Permanente, Reed Elsevier, U.S. News & World Report, and VantagePoint Venture Partners. For more information, visit http://www.healthline.com.

Media Contact

Jennifer Conway, Dotted Line Communications
Jennifer@dottedlinecomm.com
978-463-0289