03May
ICYMI, We Need to Discuss Obscure Medical Acronyms and Abbreviations
Published on 03 May, 2016
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT, when it comes to misinterpreted acronyms and abbreviations medical instructions are up there with Twitter.
But unlike that social media platform, we don’t have the excuse of a 140 character limit to justify complex lingo.
Not to mention the fact that when medical instructions get too obscure the end results can delay patient care – as recently outlined in a report from New Zealand’s Health Quality & Safety Commission.
GP users losing out
To this end, HealthPathways Chief Clinical Editor Graham McGeoch – who has received complaints from Cantabrian GPs on this issue – is encouraging a robust discussion on the topic in the HP community.
He says usability and ease of understanding in pathways is just as important as clinical accuracy and gaining buy-in from the hospitals and specialists who use these acronyms and abbreviations.
"We tend to assume everyone understands our jargon, including abbreviations. Sometimes they are used to engender a sense of belonging to a tribe or as a way of reinforcing superiority.
“None of this has a place in healthcare or HealthPathways where we want to demystify and use plain English."
Important research
In fact, research published last year by The Medical Journal of Australia underscored the problem.
It found that out of 321 abbreviations used in a sample of 200 electronic hospital discharge letters (eDLs) only 36 of them were used commonly (i.e., in more than 10 eDLs in the sample group).
Of the remaining abbreviations, the large majority (253) were used less than four times.
But perhaps more concerning was the finding that six of the 321 abbreviations recorded were misinterpreted by a quarter of the GPs surveyed.
Have your say
If you’re a clinical editor concerned about being misinterpreted on your HealthPathways site, start a discussion with other clinical editors in our forum.
As a community, HealthPathways can connect you with like-minded professionals tackling the same issues.
Take the Quick Medical Acronyms Quiz
In a recent survey by the MJA, six medical acronyms in particular tripped up a quarter of the GPs surveyed. See if you can do any better with our quiz and be in the draw to win a $40 Amazon gift voucher, before checking your answers in the findings summary of MJA’s research.
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