Use and Misuse of Clinical Neurologic Medical Terminology

Presentation Description / Summary: In a complex, specialized, and potentially compartmentalized and fragmented modern medical delivery environment, accurate medical communication is critical for successful patient outcomes. The appropriate use of medical terminology is, therefore, an essential skill relative to patient evaluation and management. Using medical terminology appropriately creates a universal, mutually understood, and unambiguous lexicon to convey aspects of a patient’s medical condition accurately and efficiently. Unfortunately, there are numerous medical nomenclature use errors that contribute to an increase in medical decision-making errors. Equally, medical terminology misuse infiltrates scientific writing and is common in scientific publication. In some instances, terms used are ambiguous and therefore can be interpreted differently by individual clinicians. In other instances, inappropriate “common-use” language terms are utilized even when medically descriptive terms are available. In this session we will explore the terms that most commonly create ambiguity, confusion, or are simply inappropriate in veterinary neurologic communication scenarios both in clinical and scientific communications. Using direct audience participation (polling), we will demonstrate where terminology inaccuracies occur commonly in clinical neurologic practice and science to determine the scope of the problem. Terms discussed will include clinical descriptors such “ataxia”, “paresis”, “hypermetria”, “spasticity”, “lameness”, “stiffness”; anatomically inaccurate descriptor such as “up”, “ascending”, down, and “descending; and anthropomorphic interpretations such as “anxious”, “sad”, “obtunded”, or “depressed”. The intended outcome of this discussion is to identify terminology use errors and, most importantly, to formulate consensus on the appropriate use of important neurologic terminology to increase medical and scientific communication accuracy, efficiency, and patient outcomes.