MEDICAL: TERMINOLOGY:
Simplifying Medical Terms
Simplifying Medical Terms
Providing health literature that is easy to understand is a challenge for
local organizations.
BY CYNTHIA H. CHO
247-4744
February 11, 2007
Daily Press
Hampton Roads, Virginia - February 14, 2007 10:00 AM
<http://www.dailypress.com/business/local/dp-51599sy0feb11,0,
4650634.story?coll=dp-business-localheads>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/2s95yr>
In December, the Virginia Health Information commissioned freelance writer
Marjolijn Bijlefeld to create brochures on medical procedures. The
Richmond-based organization, which publishes consumer friendly health
literature, planned to make those documents available on the Internet this
spring.
When Bijlefeld, who is based in Fredericksburg, submitted the first drafts
a few weeks later, she was asked to revise them - specifically, to make
them easier to understand.
While reviewing what she had written about laparoscopy, she considered
replacing "is punctured" with "is torn"; "diagnosis and/or treatment" to
"to find and treat."
Health-care professionals say it's a constant challenge to provide written
material that their audience will understand. Many Americans, they say,
have low "health literacy," in part because many people have low basic
literacy skills.
On the Peninsula, about 25 percent of adults 25 years of age and older are
at or below a fifth-grade reading level, according to the Newport
News-based nonprofit Peninsula READS.
Low health literacy often is linked to poor communication between patients
and health-care providers - which can lead to mishandling of medication,
more hospitalizations and, ultimately, higher health-care costs. According
to the Center for Health Care Strategies, Inc., a New Jersey-based
nonprofit, low literacy resulted in an estimated $32 to $58 billion in
additional health care expenditures in 2001.
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The complete article may be read at the URL above.
Informed Consent
Office of Clinical Investigation
Children's Hospital Research
Children's Hospital Labs
Children's Hospital Boston
<http://www.childrenshospital.org/cfapps/research/data_admin/
Site2206/mainpageS2206P19sublevel14.html>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/35j8kh>
Simplifying Medical Terms
Informed consent documents should be written at a 6th grade reading level
and should avoid the use of complex medical terminology. Please consult
the links below for lay descriptions of common medical terms.
Stanford University's Glossary of Lay Terms
University of Michigan's IRB Simplification Guide to Medical Terms
Stanford University's Glossary of Lay Terms
<http://humansubjects.stanford.edu/general/glossary.html>
University of Michigan's IRB Simplification Guide to Medical Terms
<http://www.med.umich.edu/irbmed/guidance/guide.htm>
Medical terminology
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_terminology>
Medical terminology is a vocabulary for accurately describing the human
body and associated components, conditions, processes and procedures in a
science-based manner. This systematic approach to word building and term
comprehension is based on the concept of: (1) Word roots, (2) prefixes,
and (3) suffixes. The word root is a term derived from a source language
such as Greek or Latin and usually describes a body part. The prefix can
be added in front of the term to modify the word root by giving additional
information about the location of an organ, the number of parts, or time
involved. Suffixes are attached to the end of a word root to add meaning
such as condition, disease process, or procedure.
Medical Transcriptionist
<http://www.marylandhealthcareers.org/html/
student/medical.transcriptionist.htm>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/25c8ev>
What is a Medical Transcriptionist?
A medical transcriptionist transcribes tape recordings made by physicians
or other health care professionals. The transcribed tapes are used for
medical reports, including patient history and physical examination
reports, autopsy reports (medical examination of a body to determine cause
of death), or referral letters (professional recommendation).
Medical transcriptionists usually listen to the recordings on a headset
and use a foot pedal to pause the recording when needed. While listening,
they type the text into a computer and edit for grammar and clarity. Once
they have finished transcribing the document, they return it to the
physician for review and approval. These documents then officially become
part of the patients file.
The Patient's Guide to Medical Terminology
Edition: 3rd
Author(s): Isler, Charlotte
ISBN10: 1885987080
ISBN13: 9781885987086
Format: Paperback
Pub. Date: 9/1/1997
Publisher(s): Practice Management Information
Medical Terminology and Drug Database
Saint Judes Children's Research Hospital
<http://www.stjude.org/glossary?searchTerm=A>
Beth Stearman Ross, Linda S. Potter, Kay A. Armstrong (2004)
Improving Patient Educational Literature: An Understandable Patient
Package Insert for "the Pill"
Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing
33 (2), 198208.
The Language of Medicine, 7th edition
By Davi-Ellen Chabner, BA, MAT, Newton Centre, MA
ISBN 0721697577 Paperback 1024 Pages 453 Illustrations
Saunders Published March 2005
Price: 33.99
Elsevier
Researching Medical Literature on the Internet -- 2005 Update
By Gloria Miccioli
LLRX
<http://www.llrx.com/features/medical2005.htm>
The proliferation of medical websites is good news for the researcher with
a small to non-existent medical collection. Legal researchers often have
to consult medical sources, so it is fortunate that the Internet provides
free access to a great deal of the medical literature, either in full text
or citation/abstract format, and that it offers search capabilities good
enough to fulfill most information needs. In addition, public demand for
medical information on the World Wide Web continues to grow. Many
professionally-oriented health care sites have evolved to meet consumer
needs, and consumer-oriented sites often include professional literature.
Journals, dictionaries, textbooks, indexes - all can be found on the Net
in growing numbers. The sources are varied; they include publishers,
government agencies, professional organizations, and health libraries, to
name a few.1 In addition, more and more of this information is being
offered for free, which is not the trend in other subjects, particularly
business and law.
With so many medical web sites to search, how does a researcher know which
to choose? It depends on what you are looking for. Journal articles make
up an extremely important category of the medical literature because they
contain the latest research. MEDLINE, one of the jewels of medical
research, is the National Library of Medicine's electronic index that
provides bibliographic references to some 4800 American and foreign
biomedical journals. Most records are from English-language sources or
have English abstracts. The database contains over 12 million citations
and dates back to the mid-1960s.
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The complete articles may be read at the URLs provided for each.
WEBBIB0607
Sincerely,
David Dillard
Temple University
(215) 204 - 4584
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Net-Gold
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/net-gold>
<http://listserv.temple.edu/archives/net-gold.html>
General Internet & Print Resources
<http://library.temple.edu/articles/subject_guides/general.jsp>
<http://www.learningis4everyone.org/>
<http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/ringleaders/davidd.html>
Digital Divide Network
<http://www.digitaldivide.net/profile/jwne>
Educator-Gold
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Educator-Gold/>
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