He said, "ligament?"
Turns out, he was not interested in the anterior cruciate ligament, but in acute cardiac life-support.
We all operate within our daily silos, familiar with the jargon that we've learned in our training. I once took a split biology/computer science class about bioinformatics. One of the lecture slides referred to a number in units of kb. Since it was a strand of DNA, the computer science student next to me leaned over and asked, "is that kilobytes?" I thought about it, and whispered back, "no, I think it's kilobases."
The correct way to use acronyms, as seen in most article abstracts, is to write out a term in full the first time, followed by the acronym in parentheses, and then use the acronym from then on. This utilises all of the efficiency of an acronym without causing the confusion. However, literature searches often come in with only acronyms, no definitions.
Arrgh!
Here is a conversation which occurred between me and two colleagues yesterday:
C1: So, I was listening to a really interesting podcast on MDNA yesterday.
Me: You mean mRNA?
C1: No, I think it was MDNA. You know, ecstasy.
Me: Oh! Yeah - is it MMDA?
C2: NMDA.
Me: Oh, yeah.
The actual acronym is MDMA!
OF course, now all I can remember from that conversation was the confusion over the acronym - I can't remember any of the salient points, for instance, what disease they were trying to treat with the stuff.
If you have an emergency, you go to the ER. Unless you work there, in which case you go to the ED. Unless you're in Britain, then you go to A&E.
- But, if you're talking about ER outcomes, is it Emergency Room or Enhanced Recovery?
- And ED can stand for Emergency Department or Erectile Dysfunction.
- A&E does also stand for Arts & Entertainment as well as Accident & Emergency, but I'm guessing those ones can be distinguished by context.
- if the patient has SAD, is it Seasonal Affective Disorder or Social Anxiety Disorder?
- if the patient has MS, do they have Multiple Sclerosis, Mitral Stenosis, Myasthenic Syndrome, or Metabolic Syndrome? (Yes, I have seen MS for metabolic syndrome, although MetS is more prevalent.) It also stands for Morphine Sulphate, Magnesium Sulphate, Medical Student, Medical Staff, Medication Safety, and Mental Status. Not to mention the non-medical meanings such as Microsoft, Mississippi, millisecond, and manuscript.
- if the patient has OCD, is it Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or Osteochondritis Dissecans?
- does VTE stand for Venous Thromboembolism or Vitamin E?
- does tPA stand for Tissue Plasminogen Activator or Tissue Polypeptide Antigen?
- does ACE stand for Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme, Acute Care for the Elderly, or Acute Concussion Evaluation?
- does MVA stand for motor vehicle accident, malignant ventricular arrhythmia, mechanical ventricular assistance, mevalonic acid, microvillous atrophy, mitral valve annuloplasty, or mitral valve area?
- does NHP stand for Nottingham Health Profile or Non-Human Primate?
- does RDA stand for Resource Description and Access, or Recommended Dietary Allowance?
- does ALS stand for Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or alternate/alternative light source?
- does BP stand for Blood Pressure or Bisphosphonates?
- PSA stands for Prostate Specific Antigen, but PsA stands for Psoriatic Arthritis.
- does AED stand for antiepileptic drugs or automated external defibrillator? Getting that wrong could be quite a shock(!)
We received a question about EHT the other day. My colleague guessed either Empathy for Happiness Task, Egg Hatch Test, or Endothelial-to-Hematopoietic Transition. But it turned out the requestor had meant Eicosanoyl-5-Hydroxytryptamide.
And lastly, there are two phrases which should just never be used as an acronym. Seriously. They are: Follow Up and Deep Infiltrating Endometriosis. I mean, come on. Just don't.
