MD

Nancy Oster (a medical writer), Lucy Thomas (a medical librarian), and Dr. Darol Joseff (a physician) teach an adult-education course on finding health-related information on the Internet, and this book arose from their students' requests for more in-depth techniques and strategies to uncloak their own medical mysteries.

The authors recommend that the search for a medical solution begin and end with a doctor--someone who can offer a diagnosis, and then help you sort out the information you find on your own. What happens in between is in play. Nowadays it seems a foregone conclusion that you'll head to the Internet for information. "The Internet, however, has no central catalog and no review or oversight process to control the quality of information you'll find," the authors note. In other words, it's a short hop from legitimate medical information to "aspartame causes brain tumors," with no referee to tell you when you've hopped out of bounds.

Although the tips on searching the Internet and medical libraries are the highlights of Making Informed Medical Decisions, the authors also include vital information regarding your rights as a patient, interpreting health statistics, and seeking alternative therapies. Those who have been recently diagnosed with a chronic or life-altering medical condition would seem to be the most natural audience for this book, but many families will also want to keep it nearby--and then hope they never need to use it. --Lou Schuler