Pollen.com Introduces New Features To Help Allergy Sufferers

Main Category: Allergy
Also Included In: Respiratory / Asthma;  IT / Internet / E-mail
Article Date: 05 Jun 2008 - 0:00 PDT

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Responding to numerous user requests, Pollen.com, one of the most visited allergy web sites, announced the addition of two new features, Pollen History and Two-City Comparison, to its popular site for people who suffer from seasonal allergies. Pollen.com, a division of SDI , has also added a shopping feature for those who wish to comparison-shop for anti-allergenic products.

Pollen History provides a 30-day allergy index history by zip code. The proprietary index assigns a weighted value to key factors such as the pollen count, weather, and wind speed and direction. Visitors can use the chart to track whether allergy conditions are increasing or decreasing over time. In the near future, the site will introduce a 90-day look-back, which will be the most extensive pollen history available on the web.

The launch of Pollen History has generated rave reviews from users. One mother wrote in, "This helps me so much! My daughter is not yet 2 and she is suffering from asthma symptoms. When she has a flare-up, I look on here to see if there is a connection with the pollen levels."

The Two-City Comparison Chart, not found on any other web site, allows Pollen.com visitors to compare the pollen intensity in their own area with that of another location for the next four days by plugging in the two zip codes. The chart that pops up displays bar graphs showing the pollen severity levels in the two locations for each day.

"When people with allergies travel on business, vacation, or relocate, they want to know how the expected pollen levels in other areas compare with what they're currently experiencing," explains Glenn Connery, manager of the application development/web group for SDI. "Our Two-City Comparison helps people plan their medication use and their outdoor activities a little better. The comparison feature has also been used by parents whose children have allergies and are going away to college in a different city."

Pollen.com will soon expand both Pollen History and Two-City Comparison to include breakdowns of specific pollen sources such as trees, plants, and grasses.

Site visitors can already get more information on pollen-emitting flora by clicking on the icon for Pollen Library. This feature provides data and photos for more than 1100 plant species, searchable by county for all 48 contiguous states in the U.S.

The new "Allergy Buyers Club" feature allows Pollen.com users to shop online for a wide range of allergy relief and healthy home products, including air purifiers, dehumidifiers, water filters, furnace filters, vacuum cleaners and hypoallergenic bedding.

Pollen.com, one of the top allergy sites in both Google and Yahoo rankings, reaches more than 200 million people annually. These include over 30 million people who visit the site directly, and 170 million who access Pollen.com features through radio and TV station websites across the U.S., as well as weather, health and wellness sites.

Over the past decade, Pollen.com has continuously improved its methodology and created new features to further benefit people with allergies. Many of these ideas have come from users who provide feedback on the site.

"This is a user-driven service," Connery says. "We're fortunate to have such an interested and involved audience, and we try to respond to their suggestions by providing the features that they want. Their feedback really makes a difference in the usefulness of the site."

About Pollen.com

Pollen.com, a division of SDI, has been supplying important information to many millions of people with allergic conditions for nearly 10 years. Among its free services are charts of current and predicted pollen levels, pollen histories, e-mail alerts, and educational materials on how to manage seasonal allergies.

About SDI

Since 1982, SDI has been delivering the most innovative healthcare data products and analytic services on the market to the pharmaceutical, biotech, healthcare, medical device, and consumer packaged goods industries. SDI is a leading provider of de-identified patient-level data, as well as real-time localized disease and treatment surveillance and modeling data. SDI takes a consultative approach to designing the best analyses for its clients, combined with expert study execution and analytical expertise to produce superior insights. Its current roster of client companies in the pharmaceutical/biotech sector includes all of the top 20 firms. For more information, call 610.834.0800 or visit http://www.survdata.com.

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