“SearchMedica is proud to supplement ModernMedicine.com in its effort to provide quality, credible healthcare information to medical professionals,” said Cyndy Finnie, senior product manager for SearchMedica. “SearchMedica is committed to connecting physicians and other healthcare professionals to these trusted resources, ultimately improving patient care.”

As part of this strategic partnership, SearchMedica.com will power ModernMedicine’s Web searches, driving reliable medical search results to the ModernMedicine.com search results page. In turn, ModernMedicince.com will offer users access to credible professional medical search results on SearchMedica.com.

“ModernMedicine.com provides healthcare professionals with instant answers to clinical and practice management questions from highly credible and trusted sources,” said David Hoo, vice president of marketing for Advanstar Life Sciences Marketing. “The partnership with SearchMedica enhances our content and features and fits with our new digital strategy to bring timely, high quality content to the medical community aggregated from strategic partners as well as our own brands.”

ModernMedicine provides healthcare professionals with access to a robust, cross-specialty library of content that is complemented by interactive tools and features. The beta version registered more than 25,000 users in 2007 with minimal promotion. As of February 29, 2008, registration had surpassed 50,000, and the site is now being further expanded with a goal of registering 150,000 users or more.

In addition to ranking search results according to relevance as many search engines do, SearchMedica also organizes results into such categories as practical articles and news, research reviews and editorials, evidence-based articles and meta-analyses, practice guidelines, clinical trials for patients, continuing medical education, and alternative or complementary medicine. This segmented organization makes it easier than ever for healthcare professionals to pinpoint the information they seek.

About SearchMedica.com:

SearchMedica.com indexes only authoritative medical information, approved for inclusion by medical editors and a physician editorial board. Medical professionals receive more relevant, smaller sets of search results from SearchMedica.com than from mainstream engines, which contain consumer-oriented, paid testimonials and other types of unreliable information. Since SearchMedica.com is advertiser supported, medical professionals pay nothing to use the specialty search engine. All SearchMedica search results are independent and unbiased. They contain well-known, credible journals, peer-reviewed research, and evidence-based articles written for practicing healthcare professionals. SearchMedica is currently available at www.SearchMedica.com.

About ModernMedicine.com:

ModernMedicine.com (www.modernmedicine.com) is an online service of Advanstar Communications Inc. (www.advanstar.com), a leading worldwide media company providing integrated marketing solutions for the Fashion, Life Sciences and Powersports industries. Advanstar serves business professionals and consumers in these industries with its portfolio of 47 events, 60 publications and directories, 95 electronic publications and Web sites, as well as educational and direct marketing products and services. Market leading brands and a commitment to delivering innovative, quality products and services enables Advanstar to “Connect Our Customers With Theirs.” Advanstar has approximately 1,000 employees and currently operates from multiple offices in North America and Europe.

"While medical professionals can access much of the same information offline, they are choosing to leverage technology to access medical literature in a more convenient and timely manner," said Cyndy Finnie, senior product manager for SearchMedica. "Many factors can motivate medical professionals to conduct a search, including the desire to stay informed about new developments or learn more about high profile topics, like the CDC study released last October that suggested Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (i.e. staph) infections were more common than previously thought. 

"Seasonality also plays an important role, with special observations like awareness months and special events causing spikes in search volume," she added. "But regardless of the factors driving the searches, the SearchMedica data enables us to identify the medical terms and conditions that are top-of-mind among medical professionals."

The top five Q4 cancer-related searches by medical professionals were:

1. CNS metastases (Q3-’07 – breast cancer)
2. Prostate cancer (Q3-’07 – lung cancer)
3. Ovarian cancer (Q3-’07 – vertebroplasty metastases)
4. Medullary thyroid cancer (Q3-’07 – leukemia)
5. Pancreatic cancer (Q3-’07 – recurrent ovarian cancer)

The top five Q4 general medicine-related searches by medical professionals were:

1. Hypertension (Q3-’07 – cortisol)
2. Osteoporosis (Q3-’07 – HbA1c/glycated hemoglobin)
3. Diabetes (Q3-’07 – dopamine)
4. MRSA (Q3-’07 – aphthous ulcers)
5. Hypothyroidism (Q3-’07 – hypertension)

The top five Q4 psychiatric searches by medical professionals were:

1. Bipolar (Q3-’07 – mood stabilizer)
2. Borderline personality disorder (Q3-’07 – unipolar vs. bipolar depression)
3. OCD (Q3-’07 – asperger’s)
4. ADHD (Q3-‘07 – hypomania)
5. Depression (Q3-‘07 – bipolar)

SearchMedica provides clinicians with a specialist’s view of the Web and an easy-to-use interface leveraging the medical expertise of thought leading medical editors as well as practicing physicians to ensure that every result is clinically sound. For instance, a Google search on the term "bipolar," a mental disorder frequently in the news as of late, returns approximately 21 million results, most of which are inconsequential to clinicians. The same search nets a more manageable 40 thousand results on SearchMedica Psychiatry from some of the most credible online sources of medical literature for physicians and practitioners. The results can be even more targeted by allowing clinicians to refine the search via content category – peer-reviewed research, evidence-based medicine, etc.

According to Finnie, healthcare professionals who register may receive updates about new content and tips on how to use various advanced tools within SearchMedica. In addition to ranking search results according to relevance, SearchMedica also organizes results into categories such as practical articles and news, research reviews and editorials, evidence-based articles and meta-analyses, practice guidelines, clinical trials for patients, continuing medical education, and alternative-complementary medicine.

For the full SearchMedica Clinical Search Terms Quarterly Report, email requests to ksmith@preturn.com.

SearchMedica.com recently was acknowledged for its outstanding user experience as a recipient of a 2007 Standard of Excellence WebAward.

About SearchMedica.com:

SearchMedica.com indexes only authoritative medical information, approved for inclusion by medical editors and a physician editorial board. Medical professionals receive more relevant, smaller sets of search results from SearchMedica.com than from mainstream engines, which contain consumer-oriented, paid testimonials and other types of unreliable information. Since SearchMedica.com is advertiser supported, medical professionals pay nothing to use the specialty search engine. All SearchMedica search results are independent and unbiased. They contain well-known, credible journals, peer-reviewed research, and evidence-based articles written for practicing healthcare professionals. SearchMedica is currently available at www.SearchMedica.com.

“The ‘Clinical Search Terms’ quarterly reports list the disorders, diseases, conditions and treatments that are top of mind with medical professionals,” said Cyndy Finnie, senior product manager for SearchMedica. “We’ve compiled all of the SearchMedica.com oncology, primary care and psychiatry searches that took place in the third quarter to help other medical professionals stay informed of the latest patient care trends impacting their peers and clarify the online behavior of medical professionals for those that can apply these findings to improve communication efforts aimed at medical doctors and other healthcare professionals.”

In the third quarter of 2007, the top cancer related searches among medical professionals were:

1. breast cancer
2. lung cancer
3. vertebroplasty
4. metastases leukemia
5. recurrent ovarian cancer

The top psychiatric searches among medical professionals were:

1. mood stabilizer
2. unipolar vs. bipolar depression
3. asperger’s
4. hypomania
5. bipolar

The top general clinical searches among medical professionals were:

1. cortisol
2. HbA1c/glycated hemoglobin
3. dopamine
4. aphthous ulcers
5. hypertension

“Despite having perhaps the greatest wealth of trusted information resources available to them offline, doctors go online in droves to research topics covered extensively in those same resources. When we asked 6,000 doctors, 77 percent of primary care physicians said they turned to the Web frequently to find medical information,” added Finnie. “Considering the misleading, erroneous and consumer-oriented information online underscores the importance of SearchMedica; it provides a trusted gateway to credible information for medical professionals who use SearchMedica.”

SearchMedica provides clinicians with a specialist’s view of the Web and an easy to use interface. SearchMedica.com leverages the medical expertise of thought leading medical editors as well as practicing physicians to ensure that every result is clinically sound.

For instance, a Google search on the term “teen suicide,” a topic that has been in the news often as of late, returns approximately 722,000 results, most of which are geared toward parents and patients. The same search nets 150 results on SearchMedica from some of the most credible online sources of medical information for physicians and practitioners.

Healthcare professionals are encouraged to register to receive updates about new content and tips on how to use various advanced tools within SearchMedica. In addition to ranking search results according to relevance, SearchMedica also organizes results into categories such as practical articles and news, research reviews and editorials, evidence-based articles and meta-analyses, practice guidelines, clinical trials for patients, continuing medical education, and alternative-complementary medicine.

SearchMedica.com recently was acknowledged for its outstanding user experience as a recipient of a 2007 Standard of Excellence WebAward.

About SearchMedica.com:
SearchMedica.com indexes only authoritative medical information, approved for inclusion by medical editors and a physician editorial board. Medical professionals receive more relevant, smaller sets of search results from SearchMedica.com than from mainstream engines, which contain consumer-oriented, paid testimonials and other types of unreliable information. Since SearchMedica.com is advertiser supported, medical professionals pay nothing to use the specialty search engines. All SearchMedica search results are independent and unbiased. They contain well-known, credible journals, peer-reviewed research, and evidence-based articles written for practicing healthcare professionals. SearchMedica is currently available at http://www.searchmedica.com/.