According to a June 2009 survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 61 percent of adults say they look online for health information. As the percentage of e-patients is growing, it is important to provide credible health information to this group. HealthMashTM is a new example of this.
HealthMashTM, a search engine for health information currently in beta version, launched earlier this month. It combines Web 2.0 universal search and discovery technology with Semantic Web Concepts in a simple, yet highly informative user interface.
Its mission is: "To promote health and well being in the world by providing personally relevant information from trusted health sites on the Web." According to its website, HealthMashTM is "powered by the world's most 
sophisticated Health Knowledge Base that captures the expertise of medical professionals and people everywhere practicing the art of living and healing and the Wisdom of Ages."
According to an AltSearchEngine interview with HealthMash's CEO Endre Jofoldi, HealthMashTM is comparable to sites like PubMed/Medline, SearchMedica, Mednar and others, but it stores explicit knowledge about health conditions, causes, treatments and procedures and focuses on important facts of a particular health topic. Jofoldi also says that both consumers and physicians will find HealthMashTM useful.
HealthMashTM will search across images, videos, articles, books and clinical trials, but its search functionality does not reach podcasts, PowerPoint presentations or PDFs. Its team is comprised of medical experts, computer scientists, knowledge engineers and computational linguists.
As it's currently in a beta version, give it a try and see what you think. Find them on Facebook and Twitter @healthmash.
Tags: health information, Social media
