Basic Medical Terminology

Medical terminology is the professional language of those who are directly or indirectly engaged in the art of healing. You will need to know medical terms in order to read a medical record, to complete forms, to decipher a physician's handwriting, and to communicate with others in the hospital in a professional manner. At first, the medical terms may seem strange and bewildering to you and appear to be extremely difficult to learn. Fortunately, there is a logical method found in medical terminology. Many of the words used in medicine are made up of parts which are also used in other words. Once you know the meanings of the basic parts of the words, you can put them together to understand the meanings of many medical terms. These basic parts of medical terms are called stems, prefixes, and suffixes. During this course, you will learn to identify and define a stem, a prefix, and a suffix. You will also learn how they are used in combination to describe a medical term.