Acronyms in healthcare

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Acronyms are very commonly used in healthcare settings. [1] They are formed from the lead letters of words relating to medications, organisations, procedures and diagnoses. [2] They come from both English and Latin roots. [2] [3] Acronyms have been described as jargon. [1] and their use has been shown to impact the safety of patients in hospitals, owing to ambiguity and legibility. [4]

Contents

Formulation

Acronyms in healthcare are formed from the lead letters of words relating to medications, organisations, procedures and diagnoses. [2] They come from both English and Latin roots. [2] [3] The use of acronyms and abbreviations is expanding rapidly. [5] [6]

Criticism

Acronyms have been described as jargon. [1] Studies have been conducted investigating the effect of acronyms on communication and, in some studies, even healthcare professionals are unclear as to the meaning of many acronyms. [7] The use of acronyms to describe medical trials has been criticised as potentially leading to incorrect assumptions based on similar acronyms, difficulty accessing trial results when common words are used, and causing a cognitive bias when positive acronyms are used to portray trials (e.g. "HOPE" or "SMART"). [8]

Use of abbreviations, such as those relating to the route of administration or dose of a medication, can be confusing and is the most common source of medication errors. [2] Use of some acronyms has been shown to impact the safety of patients in hospitals, and "do not use lists" have been published at a national level in the US. [4]

Examples

A number of sources provide lists of initialisms and acronyms commonly used in health care. The terms listed are used in the English language within the healthcare systems and by healthcare professionals of various countries. [3] Examples of terms include BP, COPD, [9] TIMI score, and SOAP. [10] There is no standardised list. [3]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Healthcare, Guardian (22 August 2011). "Glossary of healthcare jargon and acronyms". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Australian Commission on Safety and Quality of Healthcare. "Recommendations for Terminology, Abbreviations and Symbols used in the PRescribing and Administration of Medicines" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 March 2016. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "List of Common Medical Abbreviations, Acronyms & Definitions". MedicineNet. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
  4. 1 2 Glassman, Peter (March 2013). The Joint Commission's "Do Not Use" List: Brief Review (NEW). Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US).
  5. ↑ Moon, Sungrim; Pakhomov, Serguei; Liu, Nathan; Ryan, James O; Melton, Genevieve B (1 March 2014). "A sense inventory for clinical abbreviations and acronyms created using clinical notes and medical dictionary resources". Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. 21 (2): 299–307. doi:10.1136/amiajnl-2012-001506. PMC   3932450 . PMID   23813539.
  6. ↑ Pottegard, A.; Haastrup, M. B.; Stage, T. B.; Hansen, M. R.; Larsen, K. S.; Meegaard, P. M.; Meegaard, L. H. V.; Horneberg, H.; Gils, C.; Dideriksen, D.; Aagaard, L.; Almarsdottir, A. B.; Hallas, J.; Damkier, P. (16 December 2014). "SearCh for humourIstic and Extravagant acroNyms and Thoroughly Inappropriate names For Important Clinical trials (SCIENTIFIC): qualitative and quantitative systematic study". BMJ. 349 (dec16 13): g7092. doi:10.1136/bmj.g7092. PMC   4267482 . PMID   25516539.
  7. ↑ Sinha, S.; McDermott, F.; Srinivas, G.; Houghton, P. W. J. (1 April 2011). "Use of abbreviations by healthcare professionals: what is the way forward?". Postgraduate Medical Journal. 87 (1029): 450–452. doi:10.1136/pgmj.2010.097394. PMID   21459778. S2CID   27087764.
  8. ↑ Fred, Herbert L.; Cheng, Tsung O. (2003). "Acronymesis". Texas Heart Institute Journal. 30 (4): 255–257. ISSN   0730-2347. PMC   307708 . PMID   14677733.
  9. ↑ "2024 GOLD Report". Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease - GOLD. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
  10. ↑ Gossman, William; Lew, Valerie; Ghassemzadeh, Sassan (2019), "SOAP Notes", StatPearls, StatPearls Publishing, PMID   29489268 , retrieved 23 August 2019
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