Resources for The Prepared Patient
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How to Decipher Medical Terms
We’re getting health information from a wealth of sources these days—from books, the Internet, trusted friends and — of course — our doctors. But you might be feeling like the old saying, “garbage in, garbage out,” still applies. How can you make sense of it all — so that all the information becomes news you can use? Check out these sites below to start decoding doctor-ese and other technical health terms.
The Medical Library Association has a very simple glossary that translates medical terms into everyday language. It also has a handy guide to the medical shorthand that your doctor might jot down on your prescriptions. The glossary is available in Spanish.
www.mlanet.org/resources/medspeak/index.html
The American Association for Clinical Chemistry has a comprehensive list of lab tests and the terminology associated with these tests.
http://labtestsonline.org
Ready for a short course in medical-speak? Des Moines University offers a Web site full of medical terms related to specific diseases, along with quizzes to test what you’ve just learned.
www.dmu.edu/medterms
The Nemours Foundation has a medical glossary just for kids. For instance, “acne” is described as “little red bumps on the skin called pimples.”
www.kidshealth.org/kid/word/index.html
Excerpted from Jessie Gruman’s Aftershock: What to Do When the Doctor Gives You — or Someone You Love — a Devastating Diagnosis, Walker and Company, 2007.
