At least once a week around the lunch table our discussion turns to video games. World of Warcraft, Guitar Hero, and The Simpsons Game are just a few that pop up from time to time. Recently, this article circulated around our office: “More than a game: New wave of video games have health benefits” by John McCormack, AMNews correspondent.

While there has been plenty of attention and discussion on the negative impact of video games, from their potentially addictive qualities to their effect on the obesity rate, a growing number of gaming advocates within the profession are trying to figure out what good things games have to offer physicians and patients.

With the launch of the Wii, there has been an emergence of exergaming – video games that provide exercise. Soon, instead of warning patients against video gaming, will doctors start prescribing specific games to fight against obesity or chronic pain?

Learn more here.

video games health search

We've just made it easier to use Healia: you can now add Healia to your browser search bar. To do this, simply click on our home page. Healia will immediately be added to the list of search engines accessible through the search bar in the upper right corner of your browser. You can add Healia to both the Firefox Search bar and the Internet Explorer Instant Search box.

What does this do for you? Essentially, it's a time-saving tool. It means that you don't have to be at the Healia Web site to use the Healia search engine. You can use your search bar to search Healia, no matter where you are on the Internet.

Healia search bar browser toolbar Firefox Internet Explorer

If Americans keep gaining weight at current rates, the answer is yes, according to a recent study at Johns Hopkins University:

If the rate of obesity and overweight continues at this pace, by 2015, 75 percent of adults and nearly 24 percent of U.S. children and adolescents will be overweight or obese....if nothing is done, it will soon become the leading preventable cause of death in the United States.

Unfortunately, researchers continue to find links between obesity and other health problems, such as asthma and multiple myeloma. Making matters worse, some people inherit a higher probability of becoming obese from their parents.

The good news, however, is that obesity can be prevented through a healthy diet and exercise. Learn more here.

obesity prevention overweight asthma

Posted by Tom Eng, President and Founder

Consumer demand for high quality, personalized health information is booming and will continue to grow dramatically for the foreseeable future. There are several major reasons for this phenomenon.

One reason is the United States and most other countries in the world are becoming increasingly older and overweight, leading to more people with chronic health conditions. Employers, facing increasing health insurance premiums, are continuing to push employees into consumer-directed health plans that shift responsibility for many aspects of health decision-making to employees. And the exploding volume of biomedical research and discoveries are driving consumers to tools and resources that can help them better understand new medical developments.

The increasing interest in online health information is great and encourages people to become more proactive about their health. According to Pew Internet (pdf), about four out of five consumers looking for online health information use a search engine first. But, as everyone knows from personal experiences, there is a lot of misleading and unreliable health information on the Internet.

At Healia, we strive to provide more focused, more reliable, and more personally relevant search results. We believe health is one of the most challenging—and rewarding—information verticals for search engines to get right.

As a society, we are facing many seemingly insurmountable challenges in healthcare and public health. The US Department of Health and Human Services predicts that health care spending in the United States is projected to reach $4 trillion and 20 percent of GDP by 2015. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that there are more than one 1 billion overweight adults globally and at least 300 million of them are obese. The health, social, and economic burden of obesity and related chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer is one of the world’s biggest challenges in this century.

At Healia, we thrive on big challenges and we are grateful to be working in an industry where we can help improve global health in a meaningful way. We are constantly thinking about how to enhance our existing search tools and creating new technologies that will help people in their health decision-making processes. We welcome your suggestions. Our goal is to help consumers make better informed health decisions and live healthier lives.

Healia health vertical search obesity global information