Merck Manual posts - iPhone Approll

October 8, 2009 3:55 PM PDT

Wonder what a chancre is? There's an app for that

by Elizabeth Armstrong Moore

6 comments

Merck has released a new medical book and its companion iPhone app, The Merck Manual--Home Edition, a reference manual that includes timely health topics such as H1N1.

(Credit: Merck & Co.)

The Merck Manual, a New York Times best seller that has sold more than 4 million copies worldwide, is one of those medical tomes you don't typically find in a layperson's home library. It's big, heavy, not terribly exciting, and like most physicians' desk references, not the cheapest book around.

Not to be outdone by the competition, Merck & Co. released a new edition Thursday, called The Merck Manual Home Health Handbook (3rd edition). Because the book is still big, heavy, not terribly exciting, and not terribly cheap, Merck has released its contents as an iPhone app as well (home edition: $9.99; professional edition: $29.99), thereby solving its problems of size, weight, cost, and yes, even excitement, as the app has way more going on than its old-fashioned counterpart.

Originally posted at Health Tech

Elizabeth Armstrong Moore is a freelance journalist based in Portland, Ore. She has contributed to Wired magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, and public radio. Her semi-obscure hobbies include unicycling, slacklining, hula-hooping, scuba diving, billiards, Sudoku, Magic the Gathering, and classical piano. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET.