The Healthcare focused search engine Healthline has entered the personalized patient Portal business by announcing a partnership with Aetna to create “Smart Source” which will be integrated into the insurers existing members-only site. Smart Source will leverage the medical records that Aetna already maintains for its insures and in this respect, Healthline may have stolen a march on competitors in the space such as Microsoft and Google who will both need to integrate and normalize third party data to accomplish similar results.
Members who use the Smart Source site will receive personalized Healthline search results along side of their medical information that will be relevant to their specific condition, medications, links to local doctors who specialize in treating specific aliments etc. Furthermore, for each set of search results a visual map showing all related categories including information about a disease, diagnosis, treatment and prevention will be displayed to enhance the navigation experience.
While this top down approach will overcome some of barriers to entry into the consumer patient portal market that Microsoft and Google might face, there are some obvious limitations. It appears there is very little opportunity for the patient to interact with the data beyond search ruling out the ability to integrate user generated content which is the foundation of most Health 2.0 sites. Furthermore, as personal medical information is provided exclusively by Aetna, this seems to imply that only billable health events will be present and accessible in the patient portal severely limiting the overall design and effectiveness of the portal to the patient.
Reference Sites:
Healthline
Venture Beat – Healthline drags an insurer into Health 2.0
Chilmark Research – Aetna Keeps Pushing the Envelope
Tech Crunch – Healthline Partners With Aetna For Personalized Medical Portal
