Bing Helping You Make Healthier Decisions

Since the launch of Bing, the Health search team has focused on helping people make more informed decisions related to health by providing quick access to information from trusted sources and valuable details related to your search such as nearby facilities or hospital patient ratings.

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Today along with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Institute of Medicine, the Bing Health team is participating in the Community Health Data Initiative and unveiling the new Bing Health Map Application.  This new application will allow you to overlay health data onto Bing Maps so you can better understand and visualize the health of a community.

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We’re taking this a step further and enabling the ability to overlay additional map apps that you might be using to making other decisions. For example, you might be moving to a new location and looking to relocate to a specific part of a city that meets your health requirements or preferences. Deciding where you live is a complex task that involves weighing many quality of life factors. We think understanding the relative healthiness of an area to live is one of those key factors but that information is often challenging to find and understand. With the Oodle Rental Map App, for example, you can get a sense for rental properties that fit within your requirements such as proximity to hospitals or the potential number of smokers in that area, as reported in HHS surveys.

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We’re thrilled to support HHS and the Institute of Medicine in making health information more accessible and meaningful to help people make healthier decisions. This is just the beginning; imagine what could be done with more data and more ways to access and make sense of it. We’re excited about the opportunity and are committed to promoting healthier decision making. Check out the Bing Maps blog for a deeper dive about the new application.

Alain Rappaport – Bing Health