Merriam-Webster Selects Healthline to Deliver Medical Information
Resources to Millions of Health Seekers
Healthline’s Exclusive
Online Search and Navigation Capability Outperforms Conventional Health
Searches
With Precise, Medically
Relevant and Reliable Content
SAN FRANCISCO – August 1, 2006 –
Close on the heels of winning the 2006 Webby Awards’ People’s Voice
Award for Best Health Web Site, Healthline Networks
(www.healthline.com) today announced it has been chosen by
Merriam-Webster to enhance its leading language reference website with
contextually relevant medical information and resource links whenever
consumers look up health-related words on Merriam-Webster OnLine
(www.merriam-webster.com).
This partnership adds significant value to the Merriam-Webster
experience by displaying reference resources that enable
Merriam-Webster OnLine visitors to go beyond definitions to accurately
and thoroughly research the medical terms in which they are interested.
This new health information service, available now, is fully
integrated: when visitors enter a health-related word or phrase into
the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary search box, they are also
presented with Healthline results for that term – as well as associated
terms — with added features such as HealthMaps®, Healthline’s
proprietary visual navigation system that offers shortcuts to
information on diseases, conditions and treatments.
“Healthline is a perfect complement to Merriam-Webster’s online
dictionary,” said James Withgott, vice president and associate
publisher, Merriam-Webster, Inc. “Consumer traffic to our site now
generates 100 million page views per month, a significant number of
which are medical seekers in need of fast, relevant answers. We believe
consumers will see great benefit from the combination of our 200-year
history of providing quality definitions with Healthline’s expertise in
health information.”
Healthline is the leading search and navigation platform dedicated to
consumer healthcare, eliminating the time-consuming process of sifting
through hundreds to thousands of unnecessary and often unrelated search
results. Healthline’s unique Medically Guided SearchSM experience
combines the world’s largest consumer medical taxonomy, developed by
more than 1,100 physicians and informatics specialists, with advanced
search technology and licensed content including physician-reviewed
journal articles and medical encyclopedias from the world’s foremost
medical information publishers.
Today’s consumers have grown increasingly frustrated with the
overwhelming amount of superfluous results presented during a
traditional search for health information: Only 16% of consumers
who use general purpose search engines to locate health-related
information say they find what they are looking for, according to a
recent JupiterResearch report. Healthline delivers filtered and
contextually relevant search results from more than 170,000 sites that
make up the “HealthWeb;” Healthline’s search and navigation services
can be easily integrated into customers’ websites or member portals to
improve consumer access to internal content and to a vast and growing
array of health resources.
“Our suite of intelligent health information services fits extremely
well into Merriam-Webster’s commitment to delivering a wealth of
trusted, quality information,” said West Shell III, chairman and chief
executive officer, Healthline Networks. “Healthline has proven itself
as the leader in online health information search through industry
awards, media and analyst endorsements and a rapidly growing partner
network of top-tier consumer destination sites.”
About Healthline
Healthline offers an innovative approach to meeting the needs of health
information seekers. Developed in collaboration with 1,100 medical
specialists, Healthline’s powerful consumer healthcare taxonomy – the
largest of its kind – drives its suite of medically guided search and
navigation services. Healthline offers two primary routes to delivering
its intelligent health information services to consumers and business
partners: through its website, Healthline.com, or through a network of
trusted consumer destination sites that include publishers, employers
and health plans. Headquartered in San Francisco, Healthline is backed
by VantagePoint Venture Partners, Reed Elsevier Ventures, Mitsui &
Co., Ltd., and JHK Investments, LLC.
About Merriam-Webster
Merriam-Webster, Inc. acquired the rights to revise and publish
Noah Webster’s dictionaries in 1843. Since then, Merriam-Webster has
maintained an ongoing commitment to innovation, scholarship, and love
of language. Today, the company continues as the leader in both print
and electronic language reference publishing with reference products,
learning tools, and word games.
Company information:
Bill McGee
Vice President, Marketing and Sales
415-281-3113
bill@healthline.com
