Acronyms in healthcare

Short description: none

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

* 1 Formulation
* 2 Criticism
* 3 Examples
* 4 See also
* 5 References
* 6 External links

## 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

* List of medical mnemonics
* Clinical trial naming conventions

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Healthcare, Guardian (22 August 2011). "Glossary of healthcare jargon and acronyms". https://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2011/aug/22/glossary-nhs-healthcare-jargon-acronyms.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Australian Commission on Safety and Quality of Healthcare. "Recommendations for Terminology, Abbreviations and Symbols used in the PRescribing and Administration of Medicines". https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/32060v2.pdf.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "List of Common Medical Abbreviations, Acronyms & Definitions" (in en). http://www.medicinenet.com/common_medical_abbreviations_and_terms/article.htm.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Glassman, Peter (March 2013) (in en). The Joint Commission's "Do Not Use" List: Brief Review (NEW). Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK133373/.
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. 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. et al. (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). doi:10.1136/bmj.g7092. 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.
8. ↑ Fred, Herbert L.; Cheng, Tsung O. (2003). "Acronymesis". Texas Heart Institute Journal 30 (4): 255–257. ISSN 0730-2347. PMID 14677733.
9. ↑ "2024 GOLD Report" (in en-US). https://goldcopd.org/2024-gold-report/.
10. ↑ Gossman, William; Lew, Valerie; Ghassemzadeh, Sassan (2019), "SOAP Notes", StatPearls (StatPearls Publishing), PMID 29489268, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK482263/, retrieved 2019-08-23

## External links

* Smart Define \- Healthcare Related Abbreviations

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