Medical Terminology Fundamentals

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Medical Terminology Fundamentals
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Medical Terminology

• The study of terms that are used in the art
  science of medicine.
• It is the universal language of medicine.
• It is a functional language, which means that
  health care workers use this language to
  communicate among all health careers.
• Medical Terminology is a new set of vocabulary
  words introduced into your world

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Medical Terminology Fundamentals

• Medical Terminology is a specialized language
  with origins arising from the Greek influence on
  medicine.
• Hippocrates was a Greek physician whose role in
  medicine is still recognized today.
• Hippocrates is called The Father of Medicine.

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Medical Terminology Fundamentals

• Today, health care careers still use many of the
  terms that date back to Hippocrates in 460 to 377
  BC.
• Many of the terms used have their origins in
  ancient Greek and Latin.
• Learning the English translation of these terms
  is the fundamentals of word structure used in
  present day medical terminology.

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Medical Terminology Fundamentals

• The fundamental elements in medical terminology
  are the component parts used to build medical
  words
• Word structure is a combination of a prefix,
  root, and suffix

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Medical Terminology Fundamentals

• Pronunciation and spelling do countgtgtin doubt use
  a medical dictionary or internet.
• One letter can change the meaning of the word.
• Knowing the meaning of the word parts often makes
  it possible to figure out the definition of
  unfamiliar words

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Medical Terminology Fundamentals

• Some word parts/blocks have more than one meaning
  so it will be necessary to determine the context
  in which the term is being used
• Best to begin with body system as reference

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Medical Terminology

• The fundamental elements in med term are the
  component parts used to build medical words
• Word structure is a combination of a prefix,
  root, and suffix
• Abbreviationsgtgtshortening a word or phrase into
  letters bid (twice daily)
• Acronymsgtgt letters of words in a compound
  termCDC, LASIK, ER