HealthBase by NetBase is a health research showcase (read Search Engine) dedicated to medical material. From what I have seen HealthBase appears to be a solid medical search engine and I have already bookmarked it for further use.

On the home page you can immediately search for treatments for a health condition, disease or sign. Lets give it a go.

How about we try “hemorrhoids”. Throw it in the research box and hit enter. Up pops 127 treatments from 307 records. These treatments are listed in three unique categories – Drug and Medications, Treatments, Food and Plants.

Under each category, we are presented with various subcategories. Further clicking on a sub-category will show a list of the top three links with a small but comprehensive summary of what is included on each website. In fact these summaries often appear to be so relevant that one may not even need to follow the link to the website. This makes for a much faster searching (and finding) experience.

Each sub-category can be expanded and collapsed with ease meaning that you can navigate through various options without getting lost in a jumble of links, pages and websites as often happens with a regular search engine such as Google.

The other good (great) thing is that these sources are coming from trusted links. They are not just any old site on the web. They provide valid and up to date information on the topic you have searched for.

At the top of the page, above the research box, are various other tabs which enable you to ‘research’ other areas – specifically causes, complications, and pros & cons. Clicking on each of these tabs will show further information much like the treatments tab, but more specific to your exact need.

I personally think that this search engine is a step forward from other search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN/LIVE/BING.

Search Engines such as HealthBase, Decision Engines such as Hunch, and Knowledge Engines such as Wolfram Alpha are perhaps the wave of the future and the true competitors to Google or Yahoo rather than Binghoo or Microsoft.