Understanding Medical Words: A Tutorial from the National Library of Medicine®

M edlinePlus® now includes a tutorial on understanding medical words. Entitled "Understanding Medical Words" (see Figure 1), it is an introduction for consumers who want to learn more about what their doctor is saying. The tutorial is a Flash movie and includes interactive quizzes (see Figure 2). Users learn how to put together parts of medical words, using word roots, prefixes and suffixes. Lessons are reinforced with graphics. The tutorial includes fun tips for remembering meanings. There are also two appendices listing word parts and what they mean (see Appendix A) and some common medical abbreviations and acronyms (see Appendix B).

Figure 1: Homepage for the Understanding Medical Words Tutorial

Figure 2: Interactive quiz about a "neurologist," who is a person working with nerves.

If you have questions about the tutorial, please contact NLM® customer service at custserv@nlm.nih.gov.

By Naomi Miller and Brooke Dine
Public Services Division

Miller N, Dine B. Understanding Medical Words: A Tutorial from the National Library of Medicine®. NLM Tech Bull. 2009 May-Jun;(368):e6.