Doctors are getting some real competition on the Internet, or help, depending on which way they look at it. For the last few months I've had problems with my Achilles tendon and have been unable to run. While I took physiotherapy and got great advice, I also was able to do quite a bit of research on the Internet, possibly the biggest library in the world right now and, if not, could soon be.

It's a great way to get detailed information and advice your doctor doesn't have time to give you. While the Internet will never replace doctors, it's a great additional resource all of them can use to their advantage. Medical sites should be used as an adjunct to personal medical care, or if you simply want information on a certain topic and how to stay healthy -- preventative care.

There are now more than 2,000 health care sites in the US alone. A third of all Internet users already seek out health information online, according to research by ING Baring Furman Selz LLC.

My wife and I've used medical sites on the Internet in researching asthma, and she's now getting a weekly E-mail newsletter on the latest general advice and articles from Mediconsult.com, headquartered in Bermuda and one of the hot Internet stocks.

Another missed opportunity, although I know some people on the Island who got in when the stock was as low as 49 cents per share in October last year before riding the Internet wave in November to about $10.88. The price has since gone to about $6.68. For the nine months ended September 30, 1998, revenues totalled $659,000 while net loss was $1.9 million. The company expects to make a profit this year.

Mediconsult (www.mediconsultinc.com) bills itself as a "virtual medical clinic'' that claims complete independence of any hospital, drug company, HMO, hospital, or other health care organisation. The site covers information on about 60 chronic medical conditions such as prostate cancer, asthma, and depression.

"We provide patients with access to timely, reliable information for making health care decisions,'' the site states. "We work with health care companies to publish the information that patients need.'' Under asthma for example you can get access to recent news stories and technical medical papers on the subject. Visitors can send personal questions to their choice of doctor. The service provides tailored information, based on the question. Visitors can select a specialist based on their credentials and experience. The site promises a response from a specialist within two to five days with a recommended plan of action.

Then comes the disclaimer: "It is important to note that this service does not provide the user with a "medical opinion'', the site states. "The goal of this service is to educate the user, to provide some guidelines in dealing with specific concerns and to indicate alternative options the user might want to consider.'' Mediconsult chairman and chief executive officer Robert Jennings has lived in Bermuda with his family for the past five years he told me via e-mail. He and Dr. Michel Bazinet, a former surgeon at McGill Hospital in Canada, started the company in 1996. The company has 40 employees all of them based throughout USA, Canada and most recently Northern Ireland. The servers are based in Boston, New Jersey, Toronto and Northern Ireland. The company has about 2,400 shareholders.

As with anything on the Internet, where branding is going to become more and more important, play it safe and stick with the trusted names. Other useful sites can be found at Internet Life's list of best sites of 1998.

My favourite is the drug index at www.rxlist.com. The site contains data on hundreds of pharmaceutical drugs, including warnings, interactions, dosages, and overdose treatments. The Mayo Health Clinic Oasis at www.mayohealth.org represents 1,200 physicians and medical experts and is updated daily.

For the really bizarre I found the Virtual Autopsy Site. The site put up by the Leicester University for medical students to go online for a autopsy practice. This is not for the squeamish as the site uses pictures of the internal organs of cadavers. But it is for those who like tracking down a good mystery. You have seven cases to examine. The site gives you the case history and everything that would be available to a pathologist carrying out a real examination to establish the cause of death.

By clicking on the specific body part -- lung, body, heart, head -- you can examine tissue from that area. Then you get several chances to make a diagnosis from a series of choices. Once you correctly answer you can move on to the next case.

Based on what I found on the Internet I can see a day in which all doctors will have Internet access in their waiting rooms instead of the usual stack of outdated magazines. Perhaps individual doctors will even have 24-hour on-line help in which their patients can log in and get a decision over whether they should make an appointment in the first place. Now that's service. One of the things that gets me mad is waiting half an hour to see a doctor for a five minute consultation.

And because doctors do make mistakes, I guess the sites on the Internet could eventually be a source for second opinion, although the ones I've visited, the reputable ones, are disclaiming any such power. There's a whole legal reason for doing so.

You must beware of the quack sites and of self-prescription which could prevent you seeking timely medical help. The Internet, like other resources, can only be an advantage if used wisely.

Medical sites are a great example of the Internet giving power to the consumer, putting a bit more balance in the picture. And many doctors who have resorted to the conveyer type mentality in processing their patients are going to have to think hard about what they do. They're just going to have to work harder at giving the kind of personalised service only they can give. Many do.

Many don't. Doctors can also take advantage of the Internet to get the latest research. They may also have Internet access right in the consultation room to demonstrate to a patient what's ailing him in more detail, if they have the time. They can harness the power of the web to their advantage. PSL Consulting estimates 64 percent of physicians around the world will be using the Internet by spring.

I know some medical staff at the local hospital are questioning why they don't have such a great resource available to them.

Do a search on Bermuda on Yahoo and up pops an advertisement for Jamaica right on top of the results. The ad is by Changes in LFAttitudes, Inc. a marketwise travel promotion site that has also hijacked the Cayman Island's and other search words on Yahoo!.

Such linking with key words by the search sites has come under a lot of controversy. A few legal suits in the are pending in the US. The companies pay Yahoo! a fee to be linked to certain search words. The Bahamas has got wise to the strategy. Do a search for the Bahamas and you get a advert for Bahamasnet.com which takes you to all the information about the island.

Tech Tattle is about issues in technology. Contact Ahmed at 295-5881 ext. 248, 238-3854 Plenty of scope: The Intel Play X3 Microscope, selling for about $99, plugs into a computer and magnifies up to 300 times allowing children to see saliva or other items up close.