Words with which to Dream – Language in Medicine, Part 3

From the broad to the very specific. Last month I wrote about the ways in which medical encounters can be shaped by the written word, remarking upon the fact that for something that has such power and lasting impact (with the advent of electronic notes, these narratives can follow patients indefinitely), doctors receive surprisingly little…

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Written Notes – Language in Medicine, Part 2

Medical terminology, often referred to with the pejorative term “jargon”, gets a lot of bad press. A consultant I once worked with, for whom I have the utmost respect, once asked me why so many doctors used it. It was a rhetorical question:

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