Chapter 1: Today's Health Care System

Medicine roots are heavily influenced by

religious and spiritual beliefs

Egyptians understood:

Some understanding of anatomy

Father of medicine

Hippocrates (Greek)

Who borrowed medical theories and practices from Greek medicine

Romans

Who wrote the Canon of Medicine?

the Persian physician Avicenna

Language of learning in the Western world for many centuries

Latin

Physicians use greek words to name _____, as well as structures and processes

Conditions

fundamental element of every medical term and establishes the basic meaning of the term

root

short element added before a root to modify its meaning

prefix

medicine in this ancient culture laid the foundation for modern health care

Greek

short element added at the end of a root to modify its meaning

suffix

Latin words are the origins of many what kind of terms in modern medicine

anatomical

another word for the two or more parts that make up medical terms

elements

Many common combining forms describe ______, organs, and colors in health care

structures

-algia,dynia

pain

-genesis

origin/production

-lysis

breaking down

-oid

resembling

-spasm

involuntary contraction

-ectasis

expansion/dilation

-emia

blood condition

-iasis

formation/prescence

-itis

inflammation

-oma

tumor

-ptosis

falling/downward displacement

-centesis

puncture for aspiration

-ectomy

excision/removal

-plasty

surgical repair or reconstruction

-tomy

incision

-ostomy

creation of opening

-sis

process

-ia, -ism

condition of

-ium

structure/tissue

-gram

record

-graph

instrument for recording

-graphy

process of recording

-meter

instrument for measuring

-metry

process of measuring

-scope

instrument for observing

-stasis

maintaining a stable state

a-, an-

without

ab-

away from

ad-

to, toward, near

e-, ec-, ex-

out/away

en-, endo-, intra-

inside/within

inter-

between

para-

alongside/abnormal

hemi-, semi-

half

hyper-

above/excessive

hypo-

below/deficient

macro-

large/long

micro-

small

brady-

slow

trachy-

fast

con-, syn-, sym-

together,with

dys-

painful, difficult, faulty

eu-

good/normal

neo-

new

Process of decoding medical terms:

Prefix → root → suffix

T or F: Metro- is one of the three different combining forms that can mean “uterus”

True

T or F: Accepted pronunciations do not vary between regions or countries

false

T or F: Symbols are often used in health care communication to indicate direction & physical movements

True