What do you think about the use of medical jargon?

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Sushan Ekanayake
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Re: What do you think about the use of medical jargon?

Post by Sushan Ekanayake »

KristyKhem wrote: 02 Jun 2021, 19:20 The use of medical terms in the book may help others to understand. There might be relatable things for some readers too; especially if any reader is in the medical profession or if they went through a similar diagnosis. Overall, it's a good thing from an educational perspective. It encourages readers to do a little research themselves.
It can motivate the enthusiastic readers to do a little bit of a research on the subject. But I believe the regular reader will prefer to understand what the author says in a single read without going through a dictionary or doing his/her own research. So it is better to make the book more simple with simple terms.
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Post by Sushan Ekanayake »

Kavita Shah wrote: 02 Jun 2021, 23:11 Medical jargon can be tedious. The authors purpose is to help the readers and if we see the medical terms then we will get the basic idea. I feel bored when the medical content overpowers the concept of the book. It was unavoidable but it was important.
I agree with what you say. The regular reader can get bored when the medical jargon becomes too much, and I think it has happened by a bit in this book. It would have retained more readers and also would have been more useful if the use of medical jargon was minimized.
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Post by Sushan Ekanayake »

pushpitasarkar wrote: 02 Jun 2021, 23:15 I was familiar with most of the medical jargon included in this book by the author. The only one that I had to look up was SSRI. I suppose when you are involved with the field of medicine for as long as the author has been, medical jargon becomes everyday chitchat!
Well, I am a doctor and I do not find any difficulty in reading this book. Yet, it feels like reading a text book to me which I do not expect from an ordinary book. I believe that other ordinary readers do not expect that either. So I think it would have been better if the medical jargon usage was less.
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Post by Sushan Ekanayake »

B Creech wrote: 03 Jun 2021, 00:13 Probably not as much as she did. However, as a retired nurse, I can attest to using medical jargon. You use it all day long while working, and it becomes a second language. It is easy to forget that those not in the medical field may not understand what you are talking about because it has become second nature. I do believe it can help readers learn what many medical terms are, and that is a good thing in case they get sick because if the healthcare professional talks in medical terms to them, they will at least have a general idea of what they are facing!
I think what a healthcare worker should practice is to communicate with the patients in a language which they will understand. So medical jargon has to be avoided as much as possible, though it is quite difficult from the point of the healthcare worker. The same thing applies to an author. An author should use a language that the reader will understand, not a language what she is comfortable with.
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Post by Sushan Ekanayake »

Hogwarts03 wrote: 03 Jun 2021, 02:50 I think that first, the book is probably aimed at a specific audience. It wouldn't be aimed towards an audience that is not interested in the practicalities of healthcare, but is aimed at those who are interested. And I believe that if you're interested in something, you will find the drive to learn more in that topic, hence the medical jargon might not be so out of place. We should also consider that in the book, she states that she wants to be an influence, and by telling her journey the way it is, all medical jargon involved, she is. And this would appeal to anyone who has been through the same experiences as her.
Personally, I enjoyed the use if the jargon and understood it. The parts where I didn't, I was capable to research and learn more. And by going all in with her technicalities, the common population is more likely to trust her writing and opinion which would add to her credibility as a writer.
People can be interested in healthcare systems due to many reasons, and one of that is being a patient. Patients have the need to learn about their illness. But that does not mean they want to learn the extreme medical aspect of that with complex medical jargon. For such an interest I think the heavy usage of medical jargon will be too much and exhausting to the reader.
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Post by Sushan Ekanayake »

Mahdis Sadeghi wrote: 03 Jun 2021, 05:20 In my opinion, it is good because the person who picked up this book knows that there would be medical elements and descriptions included thus they will learn new things. If a person is not interested in medical stories would definitely not pick up this book so I believe a person who picks this book up knows that there would be showing the procedures of treating and details of medical explanations. The author who can bring up explicit details is a professional and I believe that these little details will flesh out the world.
I do not think a reader will expect to see a load of medical jargon when he/she choose to read this book. A book being related to healthcare does not mean it contains a lot of medical jargon. I agree that it let the reader to learn new things. But an ordinary reader will not expect to learn to become a doctor by reading such a book, but become an educated healthcare service consumer. So I think making the book simple as much as possible is better.
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Post by Sushan Ekanayake »

Cazrichmond wrote: 04 Jun 2021, 09:25 I think the author intends for anyone going through the same experience to relate to the medical terminology. I like the medical terminology as I worked in a hospital setting for many years. Also, it is always good to educate and share knowledge. I do wonder if the terms become too much for some readers.
Some patients who go through illnesses tend to read around, mainly through the internet. Such people can be aware about some medical terminology. But this is not applicable to each and every patient. So for them the heavy use of medical terminology can be overwhelming.
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Post by Sushan Ekanayake »

Chigo Nwagboso wrote: 05 Jun 2021, 03:01 Well, to an extent adding medical jargon has negative and positive sides.
The positive aspect is that it will educate readers and expose them to some medical term thereby causing them to research and know more, because I believe that no knowledge is a waste. On the other hand, it could be a turn-off on readers because assimilation will be affected and also reading fluency.
I would like to read a book from the beginning to the end with no interruptions. For that I need to understand the whole book and read it without any distractions. If there are too many difficult terms there is a high chance for me to to keep it aside. Same thing can happen with the ordinary reader who find it difficult to understand medical jargon.
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Post by Sushan Ekanayake »

S P wrote: 05 Jun 2021, 07:01 I think that it's always good to be as accessible as possible when writing about a medical topic. You never know how much prior knowledge someone has before reading a book, so in order to allow people with less medical education to enjoy reading a book, you should try to avoid jargon. If someone doesn't understand the medical jargon it could really lessen their experience of reading this book.
You have spoken my mind. You can never guess the prior knowledge that a reader might be having. So it is the best thing to make the book as simple as possible. If you make it understandable to the least knowledgeable reader, a wider audience will accept the book.
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Post by Sushan Ekanayake »

Elendu Clement wrote: 05 Jun 2021, 08:52 If not for medical jargon most person would go on, self-medicating. The use of medical jargon is very needful to different a professional from a no entity in the medical field
That is true when you practice in some field. If you are a healthcare worker you are expected to have a standard knowledge about the field, which will be delivered using specific medical jargon. But that does not mean such terminology has to be kept hidden or seperated from the ordinary people. What I say is it will be hard for ordinary reader to understand due to the heavy use of medical jargon.
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Post by Sushan Ekanayake »

Kirsi_78 wrote: 05 Jun 2021, 09:47 So far the medical jargon did not bother me, but I agree that there is a lot of it in this book. I think that since the author is a professional on medical field, she might have become a bit blind to notice what kind of words she’s using. That happens to all of us, whatever the profession is, that the so-called professional language becomes so normal that we don’t even realize some people might not be familiar with the words we use. (This sure happened to me many times 😁 ) It would have been the editor’s job to point that out. However, as stated above, I’ve been fine with it so far.
I agree. The author might not have noticed that she is using too much medical jargon, and she might not have felt it unusual as she is used to it. But an author should definitely keep in mind to whom her book is targeted towards, and as you have mentioned, it is the job of the editor to remind that to the author too.
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Post by Sushan Ekanayake »

jaym_tan wrote: 05 Jun 2021, 12:20 I think it was appropriate of her to include the technical content. It will be a big help for those who had the same experience as her. It was nice that she put a lot of effort into writing them.
Definitely she would not have to put an extra effort to include the medical jargon as it is a second llanguage for her after being a doctor for a long period. But it is not same with the reader, though he/she is going through a similar situation with a similar condition. The author says knowledge is power, and for that I believe understanding is much needed.
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Post by Dzejn_Crvena »

Sushan wrote: 30 Jun 2021, 05:16
Dzejn_Crvena wrote: 02 Jun 2021, 03:42 In the first part of the book, the author explained the type of cancer that he has.
It's a good thing to include medical jargons that will help the readers know more about her practice as well as her condition.
Jargons are necessary to retain the book's authenticity.
Besides, she's raised by a family of doctors. She can't help talk about them in her everyday conversations.
Well, you make a fair point about the authenticity of the book and it being difficult for the author to exclude medical jargon since she is a doctor and her family too have been comprised of doctors. But that does not make the reader a doctor and many readers would have preferred if they could understand what the author said, rather than understanding the author's job and the authenticity of the book.
If she doesn't use jargons, she will have to overexplain everything.
just call me "jane" :tiphat:
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Post by Sushan Ekanayake »

Jona00baka wrote: 05 Jun 2021, 16:19 Technical words have been properly used, considering that the some technical word can not be simplified further, lest they lose their meaning. Those who are passing through similar situation can easily relate and for those who may face it in future, will be able to grasp the terms easily from medical practitioner. And to those of us who are not medical practitioners, we have learnt some medical terms and concepts through that. I am okay with it.
I think any word can be simplified. Otherwise how can dictionaries exist? It can feel pretty much awkward when you try to oversimplify a word. But that does not mean you have to write something that the intended target audience cannot understand. At least the author could have included a glossary of terms.
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Post by Sushan Ekanayake »

Unique Ego wrote: 05 Jun 2021, 16:28
Sushan wrote: 31 May 2021, 23:50 The author has gone to the extent of describing, at the very beginning of the book, she being diagnosed with a cancer, the tests that were done, the procedures and their results, the names of medications, etc. Is it a good thing to include that much technical content in a book which is intended for non-medical personnel?
I can see how that much jargon could be a problem for the intended audience. I wouldn't go as far as saying it is wrong to include that much technical information. Some readers may see it as an opportunity to learn new stuff, while others may be put off by it. So I think it depends on who is reading.
Yes, it will depend on the reader. But I believe the majority of the readers will be the ones who wish to easily understand the book without going through complex medical terms. So the author should have considered more about the audience and wrote her book in a more simplified manner.
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