WEB HEALTH
Doctors rarely make house calls these days, but in today's dot-com world, they do make virtual visits. Nearly 100,000 health-related Web sites offer treatments for all maladies imaginable, though the U.S. Federal Trade Commission found that at least 1,200 of the sites promote dubious remedies. So whom can you trust?
The answer may be The Merck Manual of Medical Information Home Edition, a medical reference guide now available as a free public service online. The manual, at www.merckhomeedition.com, contains the same medical information found in its hardback cousin, the Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy, which doctors have relied on for more than a century. All the information is physician-reviewed and is written in plain language.
Also in the works for the online manual are a pronunciation guide, as well as downloadable videos of medical procedures.
