The National Library of Medicine has a very inexpensive software package
called Grateful Med that allows home access to not only Medline but a host of
other health related data bases as well.  According to the brochure I picked
up today at the WVU Med School library, it offers a Medical Subject Headings
index to help with search terms, and the capability to order the articles you
want after you've identified them. ( I'm assuming the search immediately
gives you abstracts of most of the articles, which is what it does at the WVU
library.)  There's a training video available, too, for a few dollars.
There's no monthly fee, but I suppose you'd have to pay long-distance phone
charges plus whatever the NIH fee is, if any, for each search.  I don't have
the package, as I have access to Medline and CINHAL at work, but for someone
without easy access, this sounds like it would be great.  If anyone's
interested, e-mail me, and I'll send you the computer specs and the 1-800
number.

Judy D