The language of medicine is a jealously
guarded secret of the Guild of “orthodox”
doctors. Itisaway thatthey can communicate
with each other in our presence and only they
know what is being said. It’skind ofa medical
“pig-Latin” to be used by the “in group,” sort of
a carry-over fromtheir campus fraternity days.
This medical “pig-Latin” is used on hospital
records, medical records, insurance forms,
laboratory reports, letters of referral and in
prescription writing. Itis our intention to give
you a crash course in the basic fundamentals
of “doctor talk” so that you can translate your
own medical records and prescriptions.
Most medical language is derived from
Latinor Greek and has been rendereddownto
abbreviations (Table 2-1), prefixes (Table 2-
2), and suffixes (Table 2-3). The original
words have been abbreviated to save space
on records; it also makes it impossible for you
togetthe original meaning of the word. Infact,
the hardest “hurdle” tojump or “hoop” tojump
through inany healing art pre-med programis
the learning of the “doctor talk.”
Prefixes are simply modifiers of words;
for example, the word “tension” infers pres-
“An unavoidable conclusion is that the
way in which our medical care system
bas evolved bas created conditions that
increase the likelibood of damage to the
patient.”
— Rick Carlson
The End of Medicine
sure but without a medical prefix it is of little
value. The prefix “hyper-” placed before the
word tension gives “hypertension” which is
equated to high blood pressure. The same
word “tension” can be modified by the prefix
“hypo” which translates to low blood pressure. Allmedical prefixesare used inthe same
manner. Table 2-2is a basic guide to the more
commonly used prefixes. If you have an
unusual medical condition with unique language you will need to use the medical dictionary (don’t be bashful – your specialist does,
tool).
Medical suffixes work in much the same
manner as prefixes in that they modify the
word to which they are applied. A good
example is the suffix “-emia” meaning blood.
The prefix”a” or “an” by itself means “without;”
add the suffix “-emia” and you have “anemia”
or “without blood.” Another example would
be the word parasite. Add the suffix “-emia”
andyou have “parasitemia” or parasite infestation in the blood (i.e., malaria, filariasis, etc.).
Medical records normally contain several sections including : MEDICAL HISTORY
back to greatgrandma’s diabetes, your child-
hood diseases and your past prescriptions,
etc. REVIEW OF ORGAN SYSTEMS deals in
more detail with chronic problems with your
liver, heart, lungs, etc. HISTORY OF CURRENT ILLNESS covers in detail why you are in
the doctor’s office for the current visit. PHYSICAL is the “orthodox” doctor’s way of laying
on hands and directly, or indirectly, examining many organ systems.
The physical exam should include the
blood pressure, pulse, temperature, weightas
wellasa detailed inspection ofall external and
all reachable internal organ systems. Very
frequently a doctorwill want to have his nurse
collect blood, urine and fecal samples to send
to the laboratory for additional indirect evaluation of an organ or organ system. The physical and lab can be very expensive, costing
from $350 to $500. In addition, the time expenditure of taking your detailed history,
waiting at all the stations for the doctor or
nurse can cost you in time from four hours to
a full eight hour day.
It should be obvious to you by now that
(except for extraordinary cases) most of the
informationaccumulated by the doctor comes
from you and that you can keep your own
organized records in a loose-leaf notebook or
ina 5×8 card file. Anexample of simple home
use history record is given in Figure 2-1.
Prescriptions are another area of great
interest to us (if they are incorrect they can kill
you!ll) yet, they are virtually impossible to
translate without knowledge of the basic language or format. The typical prescription
(Table 2-4) is a coded message from the “orthodox” doctor tothe pharmacist (apothecary) giving instructionsas to which medicine should be dispensed to you including
brand, doses, number of doses, etc. A typical prescription contains four basic parts:
1) Superscription – the patient’s name,
address, age, date.
2) Inscription – the name of the prescribed drug, dose form (i.e., capsule,
tablets, liquid, etc.) and the amount of
drug per dose.
3)Subscription-mixing instructionsand/
or the number of doses to be dispensed.
4) Signature – which are the instructions
tothe patientthatthe doctorwantsplaced
onthe bottle orbox. The doctor’s name,
address, and telephone number are
placed in this section and may include
the DEA number if the prescription is a
narcotic. An example of a typical prescription is found in Figure 2-2.
Medical measurementsare often unique
and not used anywhere else or may be of
metric values infrequently usedin the average
American life. These measurements are given
to you in easy conversion tables (Table 2-5).
Medical measurements are used by the doctor, pharmacist, hospital, laboratoriesand drug
companies. A serious knowledge of these
measurements are absolutely essential if you
are going to be responsible for your own
health care as the “primary health care provider” (the insurance term given to your
family doctor or internist).
Terms for herbal function (Table 2-6)
and herbal preparations (Table 2-7) have carried over into drug terminology; knowledge
of these terms is essential as they are required
tools for use of the PDR (Physicians Desk
Reference). Isn’t it interesting that drug dealersin “illicitdrugs” use “beepers” and the same
terminoland metric system (i.e., “Kilos”) asthe
“dealers” of “legal drugs?”
Lastly, if you are going to be up on
“doctor talk” you need to learn the rules and
terms for golf, boating, skiing and investments. Doctors don’t carry their “beepers” to
their Wednesday jaunt to the golf course any-
more (it isn’t good form!). An “orthodox”
doctor without a broker is like “a day without
sunshine!”