Dubbed “PubMed/Medline Search” and “Clinical Trials Search,” the tools’ names are fairly self-explanatory, but as a press release spells out, they exist “to help consumers find relevant biomedical literature and clinical trials information.”

What’s more, it appears that they’ve got a good shot at fulfilling this mission.  I’m fortunate enough to not be familiar with many medical conditions, but searches for autism, diabetes, and epilepsy never failed to turn up less than 55 results, and in one case, yielded around 274,000.  The results did, by the way, appear to be relevant.

Following a recent acquisition by Meredith, this development could be taken as a strong sign that Healia is in good hands.  And at a recent conference, Dr. Tom Eng, the president and founder of Healia, assured listeners, “At Healia, we are constantly looking for ways to make complex health information much more accessible and relevant to the average consumer.”

In terms of what’s next, an official statement promises “additional enhancements and search tools.”

The second sentence of an official press release, for example, states, “Terms were not disclosed and the transaction will not have a material financial effect on Meredith.”

(Meredith, by the way, reaches “more than 75 million American women on a monthly basis through our publishing, broadcasting and online media brands and services,” which include “American Baby” and “Ladies’ Home Journal.”  We’re talkin’ deep pockets and/or purses, here.)

Want to know something else that’s going to stay the same?  The very last sentence of the press release discloses that Healia “will remain in the Seattle area.”  Um . . . right.

To be fair, however, some changes are in store, and the acquisition is a piece of a pattern on Meredith’s part.  AdvertisingAge’s Nat Ives reports, “The buy follows the purchase of three online agencies since last year – Genex, New Media Strategies and O’Grady Meyers – part of Meredith’s bid to extend its custom publishing, direct mail and ad sales further into the digital realm.”

Sounds like this powerful girls’ club is growing even more influential.  It’ll be interesting to see if Healia grows more female-centric in the coming months – that may have been what the “no big changes” fuss was all about.  Yet Meredith is, according to its own home page, “the leading media and marketing company focused on women,” so don’t be too surprised if Healia throws a spotlight on women’s health.

 Meredith is one of the USA’s leading media and marketing companies whose businesses center around magazine and book publishing, television broadcasting, integrated marketing, and interactive media. The actual terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.

In the next few months, Healia’s technology is going to be integrated into Meredith’s existing web sites, which include bhg.com, familycircle.com, lhj.com, fitnessmagazine.com, parents.com, child.com americanbaby.com, and others. Meredith Corporation reports that their web properties receive over 9 million unique visitors per month and over 110 million pageviews.

Meredith and Healia will also expand the functionality of Healia.com and offer the technology through licensing and distribution agreements with certain health organizations, consumer web sites, employers, and other “premier partners”.

This is Meredith Corporation’s fourth acquisition recently. Previously, the company acquired online marketing service firms O’Grady Meyers, Genex and New Media Strategies. Additionally, the company has recently redesigned its flagship site, Better Homes and Gardens.com and has launched its first broadband video channel called Better.tv. Next month, Meredith Corporation reportedly will launch a new portal exclusively for parents on Parents.com and will add its second broadband tv channel at Parents.tv.

Healia, was represented by The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc., a New York-based investment bank that specializes in the media and information industries. Healia will remain in the Seattle, Washington area with no plans to relocate.

Meredith (http://www.meredith.com/) is one of the nation’s leading media and marketing companies with businesses centering on magazine and book publishing, television broadcasting, integrated marketing, and interactive media. The Meredith Publishing Group features 25 subscription magazines — including Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies’ Home Journal, Family Circle, Parents, American Baby, Fitness, and More — and publishes more than 200 special interest publications under approximately 80 titles. Meredith owns 13 television stations, including properties in top-25 markets Atlanta, Phoenix, and Portland.

Meredith has more than 400 books in print and has established marketing relationships with some of America’s leading companies through Meredith Integrated Marketing. Meredith’s consumer database, which contains more than 85 million names, is one of the largest domestic databases among media companies and enables magazine and television advertisers to target marketing campaigns precisely. Additionally, Meredith has an extensive Internet presence that includes more than 30 Web sites and broadband channels. Meredith Hispanic Ventures publishes five Spanish-language titles, making Meredith the leading publisher serving Hispanic women in the United States.

Healia, Inc. (http://www.healia.com/) is the creator of a proprietary, health-optimized search engine that uses patent-pending technology to generate high quality, highly targeted, and personalized results for consumers. Research and development of the Healia search engine was partly funded by the National Cancer Institute’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The Healia team is comprised of nationally recognized experts in eHealth, consumer health informatics, and emerging technologies.

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