MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY

PRESENTATION OF CHAPTER 1

BY

FRANCINE KING

This chapter covers the basic knowledge and understanding of medical language and terminology

used by health care professionals everywhere.

 • Surgeons• Doctors• Nurses• Pharmacists• Medical Assistants

In order to understand how to analyze and construct medical terms you need the four

types of elements

• Prefixes• Suffixes• Root Word• Combining Vowels

The correct characteristic for a successful medical term include the following:

• Spelling• Pronunciation• Proper use of prefixes, suffixes, and root words• Singular and Plural use for the ending of the medical

word.

Prefix

• There are two types of prefixes• Common Prefixes: Terms used more commonly that

are followed by a hyphen• Number Prefix: These prefix involves the number of

items or measurements • The prefix is the front part of the term.

Suffix

• ( the back end of the term) • Common are also followed by a hyphen. • Example, cardiologist. • Cardio-hearts, • logist-one who studies • This term means someone who studies the heart. • Surgical is used for surgical procedures.

Root Word

• Gives us a definition or meaning of the medical term. • Involves the parts of the body or body system in

which the medical professional is trying to demonstrate.

• A medical term may have many different word roots. • Example: Epigastric • Epi-over

Combining Vowels

• This helps combine the meanings of medical terms. By combining many different parts to a word.

• The vowels are kept between the root word or suffix. • Unless the vowel is place in the beginning of the

word. • The vowel O is used in most cases. • Helps pronunciation easier.

Healthcare Documents

• Medical documents are details about the patient. • It may show the history, physical state, the attending

physicians, the orders of the physician, progress of the patient, diagnosis, operative report (when operation is being performed), Ancillary, Anesthesiologists report (when an anesthetic is being used), pathology report (when and if the patient has this test), and discharge summary.

• All information regarding the patient must be kept confidential, unless signed by the patient to release information.

Presentation by Francine King

This concludes the Introduction to Medical

Terminology!!!!