Microsoft launches MSN Health & Fitness

The Microsoft network of Internet services today launched MSN Health & Fitness, a comprehensive online destination for people looking to improve their well-being with up-to-date and easy-to-access information.

Launching in the United States, MSN Health & Fitness combines extensive content from some of the most prominent and trusted names in health and fitness with easy-to-use search options to help people quickly get answers to their health- and fitness-related questions.

Content providers for MSN Health & Fitness include the following:

• MayoClinic.com, one of the top-ranked consumer health portals from the world-renowned Mayo Clinic medical facility
• Harvard Medical School, one of the pre-eminent medical education centers in the world
• Healthwise, a nonprofit information center whose extensive health decision encyclopedia helps millions of people make better health decisions
• HealthDay, a health news service that provides daily feeds to media, hospitals, HMOs and insurers
• Rodale Inc., publisher of leading health and wellness books and magazines, including the "South Beach Diet," the "Abs Diet," Prevention, Men's Health and Runner's World
• iVillage Inc. (NASDAQ:IVIL) , the No. 1 women's community site with extensive information on women's health issues

MSN Health & Fitness is a one-stop resource for consumers' health and fitness inquiries, featuring extensive content that addresses both popular and tough-to-find health subjects in easy-to-find, easy-to-understand formats. Content on the site includes the following:

• Health Centers, which organize an extensive collection of information on high-interest subjects such as asthma, diabetes and heart disease
• A Medical Encyclopedia that offers deep content to help users make informed decisions about their health
• Interactive Tools that allow users to gain more insight into health topics through videos, quizzes, slide shows, self-assessment tools, diet calculators and more

"MSN Health & Fitness is the easy-to-use, content-rich resource people have been looking for to help manage their healthcare," said Danielle Tiedt, general manager of MSN Marketing. "Our alliances with these highly respected health partners, combined with MSN tools and content, provide consumers with a convenient one-stop shop that's as trusted as the family doctor."

"We're excited to team up with MSN to share our extensive faculty's explanation of the latest medical advances research with the network's millions of monthly users," said Dr. Anthony L. Komaroff, editor in chief of Harvard Medical School's consumer health publications. "Pairing our content with the easy-to-use search tools of MSN ensures that people will be able to quickly find the health information they're looking for on anything from illnesses to diets."