Decoding Doctor-Speak: Translations of Common Medical Terms

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what does nathalie mean, my mother's regular doctor kept screaming this at her, but did not explain to her what it meant. Help

April Short of OH 1:28PM May 16, 2013

Pretty confusing. XD

CoolestThangAlive (Jessica) of IL 8:18PM January 13, 2013

Making sure a patient understands instructions, her medications, and what her doctor has discovered in the tests, are critical. That's why the relationship between the two is so important and why it's essential that it develops over time. Providers should have the support they need to spend the necessary time with their patients, and likewise, patients should feel at ease to ask tough questions about affordable treatments, generic medications and alternative options. I found this helpful: http://whatstherealcost.org/video.php?post=five-questions

susan of OR 10:22AM September 19, 2011

Your "Translations" are much appreciated:)
I've been collecting single - syllable words that can stump a patien (including examples learned at AAFP/STFM Practice Improvement Conference).
http://www.ability4life.com/2010/08/medical-jargon-even-single-syllable-words-can-confound/

kathy kastner 3:02PM August 28, 2011

I just paid $22.87 for an iPad2-64GB and my girlfriend loves her Panasonic Lumix GF 1 Camera that we got for $38.76 there arriving tomorrow by UPS. I will never pay such expensive retail prices in stores again. Especially when I also sold a 40 inch LED TV to my boss for $675 which only cost me $62.81 to buy. Here is the website we use to get it all from, CoolCent. com

JIm of ID 5:38PM July 29, 2011

Thanks for this! Readers might be interested in an online, crowd-sourced glossary project started by the members of the Society for Participatory Medicine, which is all about patients being active partners with their physicians. Can't do that without a phrase book! http://e-patients.net/archives/2011/05/participate-in-this-spm-project-abbreviations-acronyms-and-alphabet-soup.html

e-Patient Dave deBronkart of NH 2:28PM July 28, 2011

Dr. Lin,
It's refreshing to read your post. I'm a plain language writer and editor in health and science fields, but more importantly, I'm a patient who has had cancer and had to do a ton of research to understand what my doctors were all telling me. It's easy for people to forget that no matter what our background is, we can fall into talking acronyms only understood by those in our field.

Kristina Anderson of NM 4:48PM July 26, 2011

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olgabecker26 of TX 2:34AM July 26, 2011