The complex language of medicine:

How many times have you been sat in the hospital or doctors surgery with numerous health related questions, only to leave none the wiser? ­Don't worry you're not alone!

Your lack of understanding and confusion with technical terms is nothing to be ashamed of. The healthcare profession has it's own specialised vocabulary, a 'field specific lexis', which unless you're in that profession you're not expected to know.

Originally medical terms are derived from Greek and Latin roots and terms have been combined to make New Latin words, which have led to an international scientific vocabulary. Greek prefixes go with Greek suffixes, and vice versa with Latin. Medical terms are often created by combining a prefix and a suffix with an 'o'­ as a connector but this can be dropped in some cases when connecting vowels-stems. The prefixes and suffixes have different combinations to create different medical terms, though these terms will be within the same category, for example the prefix 'aden(o/i)' means gland or relating to the glandular system, however can be combined with a different suffix to have a different meaning relating to the same area.

This field specific lexis consists of hundreds of abbreviated terms and acronyms, these are used constantly in both speech and written language. Everything is shortened down to save time when writing down patient's medical details and also to improve the general consistency of fast paced conversations. Another benefit of acronyms in this profession is the time saving element. For example it's much quicker to say "the patient in ward 3 has COPD and requires urgent treatment" rather than saying "the patient has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease", which let's be honest is a bit of a mouthful!

Of course healthcare experts don't set out to intentionally confuse you, sometimes they're just so used to their specific way of speaking that they forget to switch to a less technical lexical style that is understandable to people outside of their profession.

Often healthcare professionals will use specific lexical choices when speaking to you about your health or medicine in order to ensure your full understanding. Healthcare professionals often use declarative forms with imperative functions, this is in order to tell you as a patient the information that you need to know whilst commanding you to follow their instructions in a polite and professional way, without seeming demanding. Interrogatives are also regularly used in order to obtain a patients information and also to ensure that the patient has fully understood the information that has been passed on to them.

Ellie Boelema