to the student

1. CHAPTER ONE PRESENTATION
INTRODUCTION TO MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY
Medical Terminology: are words use in the medical field, it has gone a long way to help medicine, career
as a health professional. The real definition of medical terminologyaccoding to Bonnie F. Fremgen and
Suzannes Frucht “is a living language which help thousands of reader who gain successful grasp of
medical language within a real world context”. Understanding medical terms requires as to be able to pat
words together or build words from their part. It is impossible to memorize thousands of medical terms,
however, once you understand the basics, you can distinguish the meaning of medical terms by analyzing
their prefixes, suffixes, and word root. Most medical term do follow the general rule that there is a word
root or fundamental meaning for the word, a prefix, and a suffix that modify the meaning of word root,
and sometimes a combining vowel connect other words part.
Word Roots - The word root is the foundation of medical term that provides a general meaning of the
word. It often word root indicates the body system or part of the body that is discuses cardi for heart.
Also, word root can be an action for example the word rood cis means to cut (as in incision) for example,
osteoarthritis.
Combining vowels/Form: to make it possible to pronounce long medical terms with ease and to combine
several word parts a combining vowel is used. This combining vowels are utilized in two places between
a word root and a suffix or between two word root. For a example, The combining arthr with scope will
require a combing vowel :arthroscopy . Another example combine arthr with its does not require a
combining vowel arthritis.
Prefixes is at the beginning of the word eg. Pericardium (means around the heart). Prefixex is added to
the front of the term. It also give information about the location of an organ. For example, the prefix Bi
stands for two, of the same thing, such as bilateral, which means having two sides.
Suffixes is the end of the word, to add meaning such as a condition, diseases or procedure. For example,
the suffix - it is, which means inflammation, when added to cardi forms the new word carditis which
means inflammation of the heart and then example, the term dystrophy, which means abnormal
development, is built from prefix dys which means abnormal and the suffix trophy which means
development.
Word Building: is a consist of putting together several word elements to form a varies of terms. The
combining form of a word may be added to another combining form along with a suffix to creat a new
description term, for example adding hyster (meaning Uterus) to salping (meaning fallopian tubes) along
with the suffix ectomy which means surgical/removal of forms.
Healthcare Settings
The use of medical terminology is wide spread. Its provide healthcare professionals with a precise and
efficient method of communicate very specific patient information to one another, regardless of whether
they are in the same type of facilities such as acute care or general hospital, specialty care hospital.
Nursing homes or long term care facilities provide long term care for patient who need extra time to
recover from an illness or injury before returning home.
Medical Record: documents the details of a patient hospital stay all health care professional who has

2. contact in working with the patient in any capacity complete the appropriate report of that contact and
adds it to the medical chart. This result in a permanent physical record of the patients day to day
condition, this also helping knowing what services he or she received and the response to treatment. This
is done by unit clerk who is responsible for placing documents in the proper place for easy access when
never needed after discharge, readmitted this document have to be properly be complete, signed and in the
correct order.
In conclusion, any work the medical terminology and is involved in the medical field profession, must
have a firm understanding of confidentiality as stated by the Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) which set federal standards that provide patients with more
protection of their medical records and health information, between access to their own records, and
greater control over how their health information is used and to whom it is disclosed.