Hartford, Connecticut-based Aetna, Inc. announced Wednesday that it launched a new website, SmartSource. It is actually a health care search engine which processes data such as gender, age, ZIP code, employer, health care plan and information from the customer's personal health records. It outputs information through a visual map about diseases and medical conditions, treatments, health care costs and local health care providers.

"Aetna is focused on becoming an industry leader in delivering personalized health information to members," said Meg McCabe, Aetna’s vice president of medical and eHealth product, in a statement.

"Aetna SmartSource pulls information from a variety of Aetna web resources to intelligently organize search results based on a member’s insurance plan, zip code, and overall health, thereby helping members to become more engaged in their health care decisions."

The search engine uses technology developed by Healthline Networks Inc., which parses searches and connects terms for symptoms, diagnoses and treatments together.

"Aetna SmartSource is a ground-breaking application because it can use information stored in a personal health record and health plan to qualify the information the member is looking for, thereby ensuring more relevant and useful results for members,"  said West Shell III, chairman & CEO of Healthline Networks.

Aetna said that the new technology is only available to its own 35,000 employees but that it will pilot Aetna SmartSource with several large, pre-selected customers throughout 2008.

Aetna Inc. can be traced back to Aetna Insurance Company which was founded in 1850. After acquiring NYLCare Health Plans for $1.05 billion in 1998 and Prudential HealthCare for $1 billion in 1999, the company became the largest provider of health benefits in the U.S., with more than 21 million members.

In order to focus its business as an independent health and group benefits company, Aetna sold its financial services and international businesses to ING for $7.7 billion in 2002 and spun off its health business to its shareholders.