According to a report in The Lancet, confusing jargon can lead to confusion and mistakes so we need to 'move away from complex terminology'
MUCH OF the Latin and Greek medical jargon that makes up the exclusive language of doctors should be abandoned because it could be harming patients, it was claimed recently.
Dr Melinda Lyons claimed the "dead language" terminology, dating as far back as the 5th century BC, spreads confusion and could potentially put patients at risk.
She wants to see the language of medicine brought up to date and simplified by removing "archaic, risk-prone terms".
Writing in The Lancet medical journal, Lyons listed a wide range of prefixes commonly used by doctors which looked or sounded alike but had completely different meanings.
Examples included "tachy" (fast) versus "brady" (slow), "inter" (between) versus "intra" (within), "super" or "supra" (above) versus "sub" or "sur" (below), and "hypo" (low) versus "hyper" (high).
Lyons, from the Department of Engineering at Cambridge University, wrote: "Many medical terms originate as far back as the 5th century BC but are used to name 21st-century high-tech concepts used in noisy, stressful and time-limited situations.
"Because the limited vocabulary of dead languages is reused and recycled within the same classical structure, there are many look-alike and sound-alike terms."
Sound-alike terms could lead to confusion and mistakes in time-pressured situations where there was unfamiliarity with phrases, little opportunity to clarify them, and high levels of distraction.
Medical jargon misunderstandings are likely to be compounded by foreign accents or unusual ways of speaking.
For look-alike terms, the risks are greatest in handwriting, small print or when the use of abbreviations, acronyms or symbols is involved, according to Lyons.
A classic example of terms that not only sound alike but look alike are the prefixes "hypo" and "hyper", she says.
They have opposite meanings and are commonly used in emergency situations.
Examples include "hypoglycaemia", meaning low blood sugar - a vital term for diabetics - and "hypertension", meaning high blood pressure.
"Confusion could have serious consequences for patients," Lyons wrote."The healthcare profession has previously poured scorn on a move away from complex classical terminology as 'dumbing down' - however, common sense should prevail.
"There is no justification for the continued use of vocabulary that adds ambiguous jargon to the training and day-to-day work of health professionals.
"For the sake of clinicians and patients alike, removal of archaic, risk-prone terms to simplify the language of medicine is a necessary step."
In sharp contrast to the medical profession, the aviation industry has adopted terminology carefully designed to avoid confusion, says Lyons. For instance, "foxtrot" and "sierra" in the phonetic alphabet make it much less likely to confuse the spoken letters "f" and "s".
Examples of potentially confusing "classical" prefixes used in medicine include: tachy (fast) versus brady (slow); a or an (absence of), as in apyrexia, asymptomatic; e, ex, or ec (out) versus en, or em (in) versus e (electronic); in (as in inpatient) versus in (as in infertility or insanity); hypo (low) versus hyper (high); inter (between) versus intra (within); super, sur, or supra (above, over, beyond or before) versus sub or sur (below); ab (away) versus ad (towards); pro or pre (before) versus post (after); ante versus anti.