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Are there ways to better focus the Healthline medical information search? For instance, I searched for "22q deletion" and got some pretty confusing results. However, when I searched for it using diGeorge syndrome (same thing, different name), I got GREAT results. Are there plans to connect official scientific names (i.e., hard to search names) with better known ones?
A very good and interesting example; one of our core differentiators is a terminology database that consists of over 800,000 medical and consumer terms, intended to do exactly as you say: connect scientific names with better known ones.
Our intent is to maintain and grow both our taxonomy and synonymy by learning from query streams, so that we will continually add matches to existing concepts, as well as create new ones as the overall body of health knowledge expands.
One of Healthline's most interesting features is the Health Map. Could you explain this in more detail?
HealthMaps were developed by physicians to provide concept-based information in a map format to help the user navigate through the many different aspects of a disease or condition. By typing in a single, often very broad search query (e.g., "breast cancer"), the user can then see a variety of related topics and sub-topics associated with the original query, and click on a HealthMap node to continue the discovery process.
The search results are then refreshed based on the particular node that was selected (e.g., breast cancer incisional biopsy). In many cases, the user may need only type in one search query, and then continue the search and discovery process by clicking on map nodes and query refinement links.
Do you plan perhaps on having human guides to specific sections? Say, like a pediatrician for general childhood diseases, an OB for pregnancy, etc.?
At this point, we are concentrating our editorial function on maintaining and refining our taxonomy, reviewing the value and quality of content that we could potentially license, and reviewing our Health Web crawl list and results.
We are expanding our board of medical advisors, and these physicians and medical specialists could ultimately become contributing editors, particularly in a blogging role. There are currently no plans for human guides to specific sections, but we're built on the Web 2.0 model: listen to the wisdom of the crowd and continually strive for improvement.
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