Tag Archives: terminology

This article marks a first in the almost 10 year history of The oblique view. Thus far my meanderings have been largely generated by ideas I have attempted to develop into readable (hopefully), entertaining (occasionally), interesting (let’s not push it) and even informative prose (now you’re taking the mickey). Any particular messages or personal themes that I have felt important enough to transmit, are woven into the fabric of the piece; the hope is that they become more palatable if seasoned with a tad of humour and garnished with a dash of tongue-in-cheek. In this issue of the BJC, the editor (my old friend Henry Purcell) thought it m

Introduction Effective communication is known to improve patient satisfaction,1 and has been correlated with improved health outcomes.2 It is estimated that the medical student learns up to 10,000 new words during the course of their medical degree.3 Doctors frequently employ this new vocabulary in patient consultations, leading to jargon that is potentially misunderstood,4 thus, impairing effective communication. A heavy emphasis is now placed on communication skills at medical school to reduce usage of this type of jargon and use more simplified terms. Patient understanding of commonly used cardiology terminology and doctors’ estimation

Introduction Coronary artery disease (CAD) forms the bulk of adult cardiology. Spectacular advances have been made in the diagnosis and treatment of CAD, but the diagnostic terminology has not kept pace with these developments. The babel of terms like Q-wave infarction, non-Q infarction, ST elevation infarction, non-ST elevation infarction, etc. does not reflect the present-day realities. The term ‘acute coronary syndrome’ is too vague. A case of acute myocardial infarction successfully reperfused is no longer an ‘infarction’. There is a need to describe these cases of ‘aborted infarctions’ and ‘threatened infarctions’.1 A pro