Sprechen Sie terminology?
Chapter 2: Medical Terminology: The How and Why
And of course the best thing of all about medical terminology is that it allows you to convey the greatest quantity of information, with the least confusion and most precision, to anyone in the world. For example, saying someone has a badly broken wrist doesn’t convey as much as saying someone has a Salter- Harris II fracture of the right digital radius with moderate lateral displace- ment and 28 degrees of upward angulation. Now who’s the coolest kid in the clinic?
In theory and practice
You don’t need prior knowledge of Greek and Latin or anatomy and physiol- ogy to build a medical vocabulary. But you do need to master the fundamen- tals, or the ABCs, so to speak, to be comfortable and confident with medical terminology.
You accomplish this by breaking down each word and identifying its parts (prefix, suffix, and root). A basic knowledge of the human anatomy helps, but more important is to know how each body system works independently and together with other systems. Knowing that helps the puzzle pieces fit into place more easily.
Mastering medical terms is much easier than you think. It is certainly easier than acquiring a whole new language from scratch. You already know words like appendicitis and tonsillectomy. New terms become easier once you know the reasoning behind most medical terms. Many terms are made up of inter- changeable parts, used over and over again, in different combinations. Once you understand this, you will be well on your way to translating even the toughest medical terms — including terms you have never heard or seen before.
Your vocabulary will grow by leaps and bounds as you analyze medical terms, and you’ll find that this will become the key to your success. Root words, suffixes, and prefixes make up the basis for all terms. As with your ABCs, once you have these mastered, the sky is the limit.
Writing it down
One thing that gives some people pause with medical terminology is spell- ing the words correctly. Again, defer to the rule of breaking down the word into parts. If you can spell each small prefix, root, or suffix and put them all together, then you can spell medical terms with ease.
One of the best ways to practice the spelling is, of course, to write it down.
to incorporate writing terms as spelling and word-recognition practice. Some useful ideas for writing and recalling terms are
✓ Make lists of similar prefixes, roots, and suffixes based on what body system they are associated with.
✓ Make lists of prefixes, suffixes, and roots based on some other memo- rable moniker, such as sound similarity or similar meaning.
✓ Draw simple maps of each system and label body part terms.
✓ Use your body system map to identify diseases affecting each spe- cific part. You can also use this technique to identify locations of specific procedures.
Building a medical vocabulary involves breaking down a word by identify- ing its prefix, suffix, and root word. The root word is the foundation or basic meaning of the word. It can appear with a prefix and suffix or between a prefix and suffix, as prefixes and suffixes never stand alone. They must be attached to a root word.
In this book we outline roots, suffixes, and prefixes and include the anatomy for each body system to help you to understand how everything fits together.
When in doubt, look at the table of contents and check a specific body sys- tem’s chapter.
Changes in Medical Terminology
Medical language is an entity unto itself and followed a historical develop- ment. Common medical vocabulary used today includes terms built from Greek and Latin word parts, some of which were used by Hippocrates and Aristotle more than 2,000 years ago. That’s quite an extensive pedigree, and one that only continued to build as time flew by, right into the modern age.
One type of medical term is the eponym, a term named after the personal name of someone. An example would be Parkinson’s disease, named after the English physician Dr. James Parkinson.
With the great advancements in medicine throughout the 20th century, medi- cal language changed with the times and continues to do so today. Some words are discarded or considered obsolete, whereas others are changed, and new words are continually added.
Building on guidance from the Greek and Latin origins, medical terms began to be professionalized in the mid-1800s. Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary was first published in 1890 as the American Illustrated Medical Dictionary, consisting of 770 pages, over 50 years after the first edition of Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language. Dr. William Alexander
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Chapter 2: Medical Terminology: The How and Why
Dorland was the editor, and when he died in 1956 the dictionaries were renamed to include his name, thus they are known today as Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary. Electronic medical publishing took off during the 1980s thanks to advancements in database publishing and electronic stor- age. In the mid 1990s, medical dictionaries — most notably from Dorland’s, Stedman’s, and Taber’s — became available in electronic form with many various editions and publications available on disk, CD-ROM, and via Internet downloading.
Now available in several formats including traditional print, CD-ROM, Web sites, databases, and even wall charts, medical dictionaries grow bigger with each new edition. Check out Chapter 24 for a list of great resources. The rapid increase in medical and scientific knowledge necessitates new medical vocabulary to describe it. Changes in medicine in the 20th century became apparent in the growing size of medical dictionaries. Knowledge about immu- nology, antibodies, allergies, and viruses was in the infancy stage in early edi- tions of dictionaries.
It’s Greek and Latin to Me
You can thank the two founding fathers of medical terminology for getting the ball rolling: Hippocrates and Aristotle. Hippocrates, considered the father of medicine, was a student, teacher, and great physician. Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and a physical scientist. He stressed observation and induction. His major studies were of comparative anatomy and physiology.
The Hippocratic Oath — an oath of professional behavior sworn by physicians beginning a medical career — is attributed to Hippocrates.
The Greeks were the founders of modern medicine, but Latin is the basic source of medical terms. With origins in ancient Rome and thanks to good, old-fashioned conquest, Latin quickly made its way through the world, solidi- fying its rep as the language of choice for medicine and science. You can still see evidence of Latin’s influence in several languages, from English and French to Italian and Spanish.
When first confronted with medical terms, the average person is puzzled and often overwhelmed by the sometimes strange spelling and more so the pronunciation. This is understandable when approximately 75 percent of all medical terms are based on Latin or Greek terms. Most medical terms are derivatives of Latin and Greek, even though modern day changes are made to make the terms more comprehensive.
Look no further than the study of etymology to help you crack the code of medical terms. Etymology indicates the origin and historical development of a term. Some examples of etymology, or word history, include
to a bone in the leg.
✓ Words with Greek origins: Hemorrhage, for example, is a word with Greek origin indicating a rapid, uncontrollable loss of blood.
✓ Eponyms: These are the words named after people, such as Parkinson’s disease.
✓ Acronyms: These are modern language terms that stand for longer phrases such as laser, which stands for “light amplification by stimu- lated emission of radiation.”
Etymologies were listed in early medical dictionaries, assuming the reader had studied languages and could read Greek or Latin. But gradually the Greek alphabet was cast aside when it was later recognized that few, aside from specialists, were actually studying ancient Greek.
Modernizing Medicine
With the advent of the medical dictionary, terminology came to the masses with full force. Today, medical terminology has evolved into modern applica- tions from basic anatomy to include alternative, holistic, naturopathic, and complementary medicine. Other modern applications of medical terminology include (but are certainly not limited to):
✓ CAT scans
✓ DNA advancement
✓ Hundreds of new drugs on the market to assist or alleviate a multitude of ailments
✓ Investigative and diagnostic medicine
✓ Joint replacements and other surgical procedures
✓ Laparoscopic surgeries
✓ MRIs
✓ Organ transplants
✓ Stem-cell research
Today medical terminology is used and needed in any occupation that is remotely related to medicine and the normal functioning of the body.
To name a few careers involving the need for medical terminology:
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Chapter 2: Medical Terminology: The How and Why
✓ Athletic therapy
✓ Audiology
✓ Dentistry and dental hygiene
✓ Emergency medical services
✓ Exercise science
✓ Genetics
✓ Massage therapy
✓ Medical statistics
✓ Medical transcription
✓ Nutrition
✓ Occupational therapy
✓ Personal training
✓ Pharmacy
✓ Physical therapy
✓ Speech language
✓ Veterinary medicine
All these applications exist in addition to the obvious groups of healthcare professionals who use terminology in their day-to-day activities, including associates, the medical secretary in a doctor’s office, the insurance claims adjuster, the compensation board adjudicator, the courtroom recorder . . . the list goes on and on. Even the proofreader of a local newspaper needs to know a little medical terminology in order to keep that medical news article free of spelling errors.
We see evidence of changes everywhere. A large percentage of surgeries are now done laparoscopically (using a fiberoptic scope), and new surgical instruments are introduced almost daily. Cosmetically, in addition to plastic surgery, there are now Botox and fat redistribution procedures. A drug refer- ence book is obsolete almost from publication, as more and more new drugs flood the market. There is always a new cough medicine to try or allergy pill to take. With every new medical discovery comes the medical terminology that describes it. The study continues to evolve, even as you read this book.
The 31st Edition of Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary advertises that it contains around 125,000 entries. The 29th edition of this same dictionary con- tains approximately 117,500 entries. That’s an addition of 7,500 new words in just one edition!