Aetna Announces

Health Information Search Engine

By Stephen Singer

Associated Press

HARTFORD — A web-based search engine that Aetna Inc announced this week will allow managed care customers to use their electronic health records as an online tool to find a broad array of medical resources.

As privacy concerns increase with a rising interest among companies to find new applications for electronic health records, Aetna’s SmartSource search engine is intended to ramp up the way electronic health information is used.

In a partnership with Healthline Networks, SmartSource crunches data such as gender, age, ZIP code, employer, health care plan, and information from the customer’s personal health records.

The search engine generates information tailored to the individual about diseases and medical conditions, treatments, health care costs, and local health care providers.

Healthline Networks, a privately held San Francisco-based health search engine that was founded in 1999 as YourDoctor.com, is providing the technology platform for Aetna’s search engine.

The Hartford-based insurer is banking on strong interest in web-based health information and the drive to transform patients into better-informed consumers in charge of their own health care.

With 100,000 people logging onto Aetna’s website each day, “that is a teachable moment,” said Meg McCabe, Aetna’s head of medical and eHealth products.

“How can we leverage this tremendous asset?” she said.

Privacy advocates have questioned electronic health records, saying there is no guarantee the information will be safe from hackers or that patients may not disclose illnesses to their doctors to keep documents out of databases.

Aetna officials say the website uses encryption standards similar to the banking industry and access to its website takes customers to Healthline’s secure site.

Aetna will make the search engine available as a pilot program this year to between 20 and 25 employers with up to 1.5 million eligible employees, and make the service available to more customers next year.

The search engine is already available to Aetna’s 30,000 employees.