Home Remedies

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.