Medical English »

This book is an introduction to the vast topic of medical English. It will not only help you to improve your English, but is also an introduction to the world of medical jargon. It is intended to help health care professionals who need English for their work but do not speak the language on a day-to-day basis. It will be valuable for medical students, residents, nurses, doctors, and everybody else involved in the health care industry.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer:Jennifer S. O'Leary, BSc, MLT(CG)(The Michener Institute for Applied Health Sciences)
Description:This book on medical English is a portable, easy to read, practical, condensed reference for healthcare professionals. Tidy sections cover the main categories of interaction with other healthcare providers, colleagues, and patients. Very practical!
Purpose:The authors' purpose was to provide discipline-specific assistance to healthcare providers as they begin communicating in the English-speaking medical profession. This is increasingly important as internationally trained practitioners with English as a second or subsequent language travel to work in English-speaking countries. It is critical for them to be able to communicate clearly to further their own medical knowledge, share their research findings, and, of utmost importance, convey accurate diagnoses to ensure patient conditions are properly managed. This book provides a fun and practical look at the English language with examples that are pertinent to the healthcare provider.
Audience:It is intended for healthcare professionals, primarily physicians, who have had instruction in English. The grammar discussion is comprehensive, but written at an intermediate or higher level. The explanations are complete, though brief, and may not provide enough information for a very basic level speaker. Intermediate speakers who are looking to improve their English language skills will make the best use of this book. The authors are all physicians, with the exception of one linguist, which ensures that the examples are practical and useful for the healthcare practitioner. Having experienced some of the pitfalls of the English language themselves, the authors were able to create a helpful section detailing some of the most frequent mistakes made by physicians when speaking in English. Their experience lends a sense of authority and compassion to the passages that will be appreciated by readers.
Features:This book targets all forms of communication -- reading, writing, and speaking. By far, the grammar unit is the most exhaustive, comprising nearly one quarter of the book. It will be a valuable reference for learners, and is made as fun and interesting as grammar can be with the topical examples. Although the book does emphasize grammar in reading and writing skills, the authors note that speaking is one of the hardest skills to learn in a new language. To this end, the book provides practical tips to improve the learner's self-efficacy through speaking the language. One of the unique features of this book is its overall look at the educational components of the medical profession. It helps the reader by summarizing the key requirements of academia, including submitting scientific works for publication, registering for a conference, giving lectures to other professionals, and chairing educational sessions. Another section deals with the use of Latin and Greek medical terminology, including basic rules for pluralizing these terms. The acronyms and abbreviations section is a valuable unit for anyone faced with the foreign language that is healthcare jargon. The added coaching about the reading vs. spelling of abbreviations is particularly helpful, as are the directions on how to increase a reader's command of the short forms used in a specialty. Patient interview skills are discussed in the next to last unit. Communication with patients is paramount to establishing rapport, gaining trust, and ultimately ensuring proper diagnosis and treatment. The words that may be needed to perform this skill are outlined in this chapter. An attempt to translate the colloquial or everyday language of the patient to medical speak is made, but as one would expect, this task is nearly impossible to fully detail. Of note is the absence of any phrases related to the obtaining of patient consent. This may be an important consideration for future editions. Even though this book is intended to readers with the proper use of the English language, it discusses some of the more subtle exchanges in its Conversation Survival Guide unit. These examples deal with the situations one may encounter outside of medicine. Although it seems slightly out of place in this book, it does dovetail with the authors' intent of helping non-native English speakers feel more confident and express themselves as professionals. As with much of the book, this unit also contains humorous phrases in situational encounters allowing an appreciation for the daunting task of becoming fluent in English.
Assessment:This book is interesting and fun to read. The grammar section was an enlightening experience for me, as someone for whom English is the first and only language. Although impossible to produce a completely comprehensive medical English guide, this book goes far to cover a wide range of commonly occurring situations and pitfalls. In addition, there is encouragement for additional self-study and suggestions for further enrichment outside its bindings. This book is an excellent springboard for furthering practical medical English for intermediate English speakers.