Healthy Living

The health care field has a language all to its own — one that is nearly unintelligible to the average person.  Hearing unfamiliar acronyms and abbreviations can be intimidating when they are being used to describe you and your health care problems.   

And there are so many of them!  In fact, the Healthcare Association of NY State has compiled a list of acronyms, abbreviations, and medical terms into a book that is 75 pages long.  When I scanned that long list, I was surprised at how many were unfamiliar to me, a person with decades of health care experience. 

Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to process and understand information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.

If your health are provider says that you have C.A.D. and wants to do a MUGA scan, your mind might race ahead and try to decipher those acronyms.  Does that mean you have “Chronic Alzheimer’s Disease,” and the plan is for you to get “mugged” in the X-ray department?   Actually, C.A.D. is the acronym for Coronary Artery Disease, and a MUGA scan, even though it’s pronounced “MUGGA,” does not involve violence; it stands for “Multiple Gated Acquisition” — a non-invasive  test used to measure heart function and performance. 

The point here:  ask questions.  Don’t be intimidated by medical jargon.  It’s easy for anxiety to be heightened when dealing with healthcare issues anyway. You shouldn’t have to ask “what does that mean?” after every sentence, but sometimes it’s necessary.   

Health care providers that communicate clearly to their patients will have the most success. It’s a two-way street — patients need to communicate their concerns and health habits to their provider, too. People will make better health care decisions with clear communication and understanding. That’s a win-win situation for everyone.  One last note: if your practitioner says you’re “S.O.B” that simply means, “Short of Breath.”

Alice Facente is a community health nurse for the Backus Health System. This advice should not replace the advice of your personal health care provider. To comment on this column or others, visit the Healthy Living blog at www.healthydocs.blogspot.com or e-mail Ms. Facente or any of the Healthy Living columnists at healthyliving@wwbh.org