My Doctor Speaks Gibberish!
*Note: This article is not intended to provide medical advice. It is solely for educational and informational purposes.
Ever feel like your physician is speaking absolute gibberish to you when going through your medical history or during the physical exam portion of your visit? Maybe you're thinking that they would do better by dumbing their medical language down for you so that you won't have to annoy them with 1,001 questions. The truth is that lots of physicians lack cultural competence (understanding and responding to unique cultural differences appropriately when dealing with different cultures-23). In fact, the lack of cultural competence seen in medical doctors has become such a problem when addressing health disparities and bridging the gap that The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has described the interaction that should take place between patient and doctor as "cultural respect" -23 and deemed it a necessity. The NIH states that cultural respect is extremely important to diminishing the health disparities seen across underserved populations and delivering high quality health care to everyone. So, why aren't ALL doctors interacting with their patients using cultural respect? Honestly, I don't know.
However, I do know that you are allowed to be in control of how doctors speak to you during your exam. Therefore, we here at Kroun crafted the infographic depicted above to help you with some common medical terms that often trip patients up when communicating with their clinicians and other clinical staff. While this is certainly not an exhaustive list of all the medical language that could be thrown at you during an appointment, use the knowledge you gain from it to embolden you to ask more questions and demand that the answers to those questions be easily understood. Don't be afraid to ask "What did you say?", "What does that mean?", or "Could you spell that for me, I'd like to research it later?" After all, YOUR health is at stake here. YOU should be able to understand the state of your health with complete knowledge.
Sources:
1) Risk Factors; World Health Organization
2) Risk Factor; National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health
3) Risk Factor; Merriam-Webster Incorporated
4) Smoking Cessation; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
5) Smoking Cessation; WebMD
6) Quitting Smoking; U.S. National Library of Medicine; MedlinePlus
7) Blood Thinners; U.S. National Library of Medicine; MedlinePlus
8) Warfarin and Other Blood Thinners; Heart Disease Health Center; WebMD, LLC
9) Blood Thinner; medicinenet.com
10) Heart Disease; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
11) Heart Disease; Mayo Clinic
12) Cardiovascular Diseases; World Health Organization
13) Medical History; Collins: English Dictionary
14) Family History; Genetics Home Reference; U.S. National Library of Medicine
15) Family History; American Medical Association
16) Family Health History; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
17) Genetics; Nature Publishing Group
18) Genetics; Merriam-Webster, Incorporated
19) Genetics; University of Maryland Medical Center
20) Screening; MedlinePlus; U.S. National Library of Medicine
21) Screening; Merriam-Webster, Incorporated
22) Screening; National Cancer Institute; National Institutes of Health
23) Cultural Respect; National Institutes of Health