CLINICAL TERMINOLOGY

Clinical terminology is defined as a set of predetermined and itemized clinical terms which conveys information explicitly.

Classification of clinical terminology

• Diagnosis procedures
• Diagnosis
• Therapeutic procedures
• Medications
• Findings of diagnosis
• Organisms
• Anatomy

Application of clinical terminology

Clinical terminology finds its own application as mentioned below.

• Helps in storing informations on database
• Interpretation of informations stored in database
• Easy to transfer the clinical datas without much effort
• Helps in billing datas like reporting, accounting and inventory
• Stored datas can be easily monitored
• Primary care of patient
• Clinical research to understand epidemiology of disease and effectiveness of therapy
• Retrieve the informations easily and comparison of various datas

A basic example for clinical terminology can be explained with the help of Analgesic drug Aspirin.

Clinical Terminology of Aspirin

Basic features

Aspirin termed as Acetyl Salicylic Acid (ASA) has a unique identified code-‘12345’. It is a salicylate drug. Aspirin translations are NDC 5502 and UMLS (Unified Medical Language System) code C0004057. The features of aspirin are

• Analgesic: Reduces pain
• Antipyretic: Reduces fever
• Anti inflammatory: Used for medication
• Antiplatelet: Inhibit the production of thromboxane

Therapeutic uses of aspirin: It is used in the treatment of migraine. When aspirin, paracetamol and caffeine are used in correct proportion, they act as potential medicine. It helps in reducing

• Gastric distension
• Skin irritation
• Muscle cramp
• Bloating
• Tooth pain
• Post surgery painkiller
• Menstrual pain
• Muscle soreness
• Stroke
• Heart attack
• Cardiovascular diseases
• Hemorrhagic stroke
• Ischaemic stroke

Need for clinical terminology

It helps in describing the chemical constituents of the medicine. Clinical terminology helps in clear understanding of clinical concepts by avoiding ambiguity and redundancy. Clinical terminologies are everlasting. It helps in proper concept identification of non-semantic terms by bringing semantic relationship and polyhierarchy. Hierarchy are developed on the basis of disease development (either lung or heart related), whereas polyhierarchy are developed on the basis of disease like heart, lung and associated infectious diseases. Semantic relationship like word root, prefix and suffix phrases, signs and symbols are developed on the basis of specimen, test and substance measured.