Category: A

This is the sixth nerve rising from the brain and controls the external rectus muscle of the eye, which turns the eye outwards. It is particularly liable to be paralysed in diseases of the nervous system, thus leading to an inward squint. The sixth cranial nerve, known as the abducent nerve, is responsible for supplying…

A method of examining the ability of an individual’s heart (cardiovascular system) to handle exercise. The individual is first examined at rest in order to determine the base electrocardiogram, heart rate, blood pressure, and symptoms, and then the individual walks on a treadmill while the same information is collected during the exercise. The test was…

The branch of the practice of medicine which treats diseases, injuries, and deformities by means of operation, which usually involves the use of instruments, and the removal of body tissue or the rearrangement, rebuilding, or replacement of body structures. Treatment by manipulation also falls into this branch of medicine. One of the medical specialties for…

A term sometimes given to an operating room or a treatment room.  

A method for separating some kinds of things or patients from others. The term is often employed in one method of assessing quality of care, in which medical records of patients are subjected to a “screen” which isolates for detailed review the records of those with unusually long stays, or those with complications of care,…

A person for whom a guardian has been appointed, or who is otherwise “protected” by the law; for example, a minor or a legally incompetent person.  

A number which identifies the specific multihospital system to which a given hospital belongs. This code is used by the American Hospital Association in its listing of hospitals in its annual AHA Guide to the Health Care Field.  

A phrase used in organizations describing the two kinds of roles played by personnel. “Line” pertains to positions in the “chain of command” in which superiors direct subordinates at a series of levels, and “staff” refers to positions in which individuals (or components of the organization) are not in the “chain of command” but are…

A number expressing the relative size of a given statistic (number calculated from data) when compared with a reference value for that statistic. It is the result of dividing the given value of the statistic by the reference value.  

Magazines published so as to be read in an electronic format. Originally this meant that text and pictures, and any other multi-media elements, were stored on electronic media such as floppy disks and distributed to the readers in much the same way as their paper counterparts were. Increasingly, e-zines are published online, allowing the reader…