Medical Terms Used in HHARP and their Definitions

Public Health – Term variously referring to the level of health in the population, to actions that improve that level, or to related study. Activities that aim to benefit a population tend to emphasize prevention, protection, and health promotion as distinct from treatment tailored to individuals with symptoms. Examples include the provision of a clean water supply and good sewerage, the conduct of anti-smoking education campaigns, and screening for diseases such as cancer of the breast and cervix.

Always seek the advice of a qualified physician for medical diagnosis and treatment. Word Building Reference- This resource strengthens your understanding of medical terminology. See how common medical terms and definitions are created using the various prefixes, suffixes, and root words. Although an aneurysm can occur in any part of the body, they’re most common in the brain, aorta, legs, intestine, and spleen. Aortic injury, high pressure, and high cholesterol may also cause an aneurysm. Also called paracentesis, it involves removing excess fluid from the abdomen using a needle.

The Forum also needs to distinguish good guidelines from bad and to communicate its expectations to contractors, expert panels, and others. Care that is not described by scientific evidence and expert judgment as either clearly one or the other may be termed equivocal. A practice might be labeled equivocal for empirical reasons; that is, the benefits and harms are uncertain. It might also be described as equivocal because of ambivalence, for instance, when the benefits are known to exceed harms but to such a trivial or small degree that raters are reluctant to call the practice appropriate. In this latter case, value judgments may have much to do with whether a practice is considered “worth” providing, and these judgments may rest on considerations of cost and other matters.

BLOOD-BRAIN BARRIER – The barrier that exists between the blood and the cerebrospinal fluid, which prevents the passage of various substances from the bloodstream to the brain. AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM – Involuntary nervous system, is also termed the vegetative nervous system. A system of nerve cells whose activities are beyond voluntary control.

Thus, a performance measure is more like a bathroom scale than it is a table of recommended weights by gender and body build. As defined here, practice guidelines include such varied means of assisting clinical decision-making as pathway guidelines or practice algorithms, boundary guidelines or appropriateness criteria, and practice parameters. With these criteria in mind, the committee reviewed definitions in common and professional use, developed draft definitions of terms, and then revised the definitions based on committee discussion. The following sections of the chapter describe the results of this process for each of the four key terms. MENINGITIS – An infection or inflammation of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord.

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