Merck Manuals and Health Guides Go Digital

The Merck Manuals, popular health guides provided by Merck (Darmstadt, Germany) are moving to a free, digital-only format in 10 different languages, as part of an effort to educate the global community on medical issues.

The website of Merck Manuals debuted in the United States in April 2015, offering free online access to both professional and consumer audiences. New websites will launch in other English-speaking countries in July 2015, while sites translated into nine other languages are expected to launch in the next 12–18 months. An English-language mobile app is also set to launch by early 2016, with translated apps to follow. The manuals will be known outside of the United States and Canada as MSD Manuals.

Backlist print editions of the Merck titles will still be sold, but all new content will be posted on the new website, which will feature two options on the landing page: one with advanced content designed for healthcare professionals (doctors, pharmacists, and nurses), and another with content presented in layman's terms for consumers (patients, caregivers, and parents). The new US website has had about 4 million unique visitors since the April launch, and Merck Manuals will continue to invest millions of dollars each year to maintain the digital publication.

The site will contain no advertising and will be supported by Merck as a public service. Multimedia features on the new site will include daily medical news feeds, expert commentary, infographics, animations, video clips, health calculators and trackers, quizzes, a drug interaction checker, a pill identifier, and a guide to pronunciation of medical terms. The switch to digital is part of an effort to help readers quickly access authoritative health content among the hundreds of results that can pop up in an Internet search.

“By offering both professional and consumer-oriented content free of charge, users can find what they are looking for in as much detail as they need. The information is compiled by hundreds of medical experts across the world,” said Robert Porter, editor-in-chief of Merck Manuals. “We would like to show information as a universal right, not a commodity. Over 100 videos for performing medical procedures will be included in the professional mobile app, so if you're up the Amazon and haven't delivered a baby in a while, we'll have that available.”

The professional manuals have been distributed in print since 1899 and most recently carried a price tag of nearly USD 80 each. The 19th, and last, edition of The Merck Manual for doctors was published in 2011. The version for patients, The Merck Manual of Medical Information - Home Edition, was first published in 1997 and routinely hit various bestsellers lists, selling more than 2 million copies. In its third edition, which was published in 2009, the book was renamed The Merck Manual Home Health Handbook.

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