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Chapter 5 Academic Knowledge: Medical Terminology and Body Organization
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everyday language, such as a.m. and p.m. for morning and afternoon.
Abbreviations are an important part of medical terminology. They can
save time, space, and effort.
An abbreviation can be a shortened form of a word. For instance,
chemo is a shortened way of saying chemotherapy. Some abbreviations are
known as acronyms, meaning that each letter in the abbreviation stands
for a word. For example, MRI is an acronym for magnetic resonance imaging.
Sometimes each letter of an abbreviation represents a Greek or Latin word
part, as in ECG, which is an abbreviation for electrocardiography. These
abbreviations may not make sense until you understand their Latin and
Greek origins.
Different medical facilities in different parts of the country may write
abbreviations in different ways. Some use a period to separate lowercase
letters, as in b.i.d. for twice in a day. Some use all capital letters, as in BID.
Different facilities may or may not have lines over certain abbreviations.
The abbreviation for after may be written as either p or p, depending on
the facility in which you work.
Both writing messily and misreading letters and numbers that look
alike can cause preventable medical errors (Figure 5.2 on the next page).
Healthcare workers should be aware of and use only the abbreviations on
the approved list for their facility. Never make up your own abbreviations.
Use your best judgment about when abbreviations are helpful and when
they should be avoided to prevent additional confusion. Always write
neatly. Medical charts are a legal record and must be understandable for
everyone who uses them.
Understanding Word Parts
Every language has rules that determine how it is properly written
and spoken. The rules are different for each language. Medical
terminology, like any other language, also follows specifi c rules for how
words are formed, spelled, and pronounced.
A medical term is usually a combination of several word parts, like a
train with many types of boxcars connected together (Figure 5.3 on the
next page). Breaking down medical terms into their various parts will
allow you to defi ne many more terms than you could possibly memorize
by studying them as whole words. Examples of all word parts are
provided in Figure 5.4 on page 151.
A root word is the foundation of a medical term. It carries the term’s
main meaning, just as a train’s boxcars hold the cargo to be delivered. It
is usually a noun, such as a body part. For example, the root word cardi
means heart, and the root word pulmon means lung.
Several root words may be combined in one word, like a compound
word, but they need a combining vowel to connect them when the next
root or suffi x does not begin with a vowel. Think of combining vowels
like couplers that hold a train’s boxcars together. The most common
combining vowel is o, but other vowels may sometimes be used. A
combining vowel makes the complete term easier to pronounce. The word
cardiopulmonary sounds smoother than cardipulmonary because of the letter
o placed between the root words.