Question

Why is medical terminology important? How is it different from other types of writing? Provide 3 examples of types of medical writing.

Answer 1

Medical terminology is the universal terminology used in health care . Medical terminology is important inorder to understand the disease condition, treatment that is given to the patient and since it is used worldwide , it reduces the confusion about the status of patient due to the differences in language across the globe. It also helps in ease of communication between the health workers. It helps in proper treatment of the patient. It also ensures the uniformity and no one is lost in the process of translation.

Medical writing is different from other types of writing in a way :

• The same prefix and suffix are used to add meanings to different roots . For example : Hyperglycemia , hyper refers to "increased'' and ''glycemia'' refers to ''sugar levels''.
• Most of the words have Latin and Ancient Greek words as prefix and suffix. Example : neonatology, quadriplegia.
• Combining form is used in certain medical terminologies like gastroenteritis , peritonitis, pericarditis etc.. gastroenteritis is inflammation of gastric linning, peritonitis is inflammation of peritoneal cavity, pericarditis is inflammation of pericardium of heart. Therefore, 'itis ' refers to inflammation.

Thank you..