Sara Schuster

ENC 1102
October 11, 2020
Research Dossier

How Medical Terminology Can Help Understand Covid-19

Introduction to the Research Dossier

2020 so far has been riddled with disaster since the very beginning of the year. The
biggest problem of them all is the Coronavirus Pandemic. The virus seems to have
taken over the world for the better part of the year. The Virus itself has only been
in the U.S for about 8 months but Covid-19 has made its way around the world. So
far many people in the U.S have been affected by the virus and as of right now
there is really no known cure or way to completely protect yourself from
contracting Covid-19.

The language of medicine in a practice that allows doctors to communicate and

understand medical terminology. Within Language of Medicine (LOM) the
separate word parts of the single word all have different meanings regarding
location and which specific body part the word id referring to. When it comes to
the Covid-19 pandemic having knowledge of basic medical terminology can allow
people who are not doctors better understand the virus and help them prepare better
for the virus.

When we see news stories either on the TV or in the newspaper regarding the virus
big words may be used while sharing information to the public that will essentially
go straight over the reader or listeners head because regular people don’t know
what those big words mean. Even when people who have been diagnosed with
Coronavirus, when talking with doctors about option big medical terms can be
used and thus confusing the patient because the medical terms have been lost in
translation. Although doctors find the use of medical terminology and
Language of Medicine as second nature, to others it can be confusing and hard to
understand. That is why with a little bit of background knowledge of medical
terminology the line of communication can be clearer with patient- doctor
communication.

The problem is that communication between doctors and patients can become
muddled when the understanding of medical terminology and the use of Language
of Medicine are on two completely different levels. With the research at hand we
can see that when a patient has just a little bit of background of words and word
parts used in the medical field, the communication can become easier. Hearing
doctors talk in big words that you font understand can already be scary enough but
 Sara Schuster
ENC 1102
October 11, 2020
Research Dossier

when it comes to your own health and ways to protect yourself from the virus
knowing the basics will ease the fear of the virus, even if it’s just a fraction.

The sources that I have chosen to help me with my research center around either
the virus itself, protection from the virus, communication, and medical
terminology. Pertaining to the communication about the virus has shown that “risk
communication” has been apparent during the pandemic because of the highly
infections state of the virus. With medical terminology it is hard to relate it to the
virus but making the connection between doctors and patients is all about
understanding what the words actually means to the recipient.

Research Proposal

Subject: How Medical Terminology Can Help Understand Covid-19

Topic Description:
Move 1: Language of Medicine is a common practice in the medical field because
of the quickness of being able to abbreviate certain terms and them being accepted
and because of the word parts that are used to decipher the full meaning of medical
terms. With the Pandemic, having the background of some medical terminology
will allow the public to better understand the virus, how to protect themselves, and
how to stay healthy

Move 2: While doctors find the Language of Medicine helpful within their
practice, individuals who are not medical doctors or have any sort of prior
knowledge of the medical field could potentially get lost in translation of the
complex word parts and compound words.

Move 3: The research I am presenting is to touch on the importance of extended

knowledge of Language of Medicine and their word parts to ease communication
between doctors and the public about Covid-19.

Documentation style: I intend on using MLA because I am most familiar with the
set-up of both references and in-text citations. However, as I get further into my
research this may change depending on the available information of the sources
such as authors, publishers, ect. In this case I would likely use APA format.
 Sara Schuster
ENC 1102
October 11, 2020
Research Dossier

Purpose: My major is Health Sciences and within the medical field language of
medicine (LOM) is used universally. No matter what country you are in the same
medical terminology will be used, so then it is helpful for when doctors are
communicating with each other whether it is talking face to face about a patient or
just sharing notes or charts, especially when it comes to Covid-19. During this time
having this universal language of medicine doctors from all around the world are
able to understand the research and findings of other doctors. Intertextuality is used
because when doctors reference other work after communicating with the universal
Language of medicine they are essentially using facts that come from on source
because science is science. Also having some knowledge of medical terminology
can help with doctor to patient communication, because it will allow the patient
and others who are suffering because of the virus to understand the dangers of
transmission and other factors regarding Covid-19

Intended Audience: The intended audience for my research paper would be

people within my class who are trying to gather information about the pandemic
and are confused about the medical terminology.

Research Question/ Primary Thesis/ Argument: How can having more

knowledge of medical terminology help the public regarding Covid-19? Will
having the line of communication open with doctors and having that understanding
of the language of medicine allow people to better protect themselves?

Types of Research Areas: In my research paper I will be using all three of the
research areas: Scholarly, internet, and field research for my topic. I will be able to
use all three because I plan on finding the majority of my evidence within books
and the internet, but I also have experience working and shadowing professionals
within the medical field while working on my CAN certification.

Keywords: Covid-19, Language of Medicine, Medical Terminology, Patient-

Doctor Communication, Disease, Communication, Virus

 Sara Schuster
ENC 1102
October 11, 2020
Research Dossier

Annotated Bibliography

1- Abrams, Elissa M., and Matthew Greenhawt. “Risk Communication During

COVID-19.” The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice,
Elsevier, 15 Apr. 2020,
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213219820303639.
Content: This article shows how rapidly information about the virus has
evolved into what the facts are today. The article also talks about how the
consequences of poor communication can lead to the further spread of the
virus.
Author: The author herself is a doctor who studies allergies and clinical
immunology.
BEAM: the article explains the importance of communication when talking
about Covid-19 because of its highly infectious state, the source shows the
benefit of risk communication.

2- Additional informationFundingJEA is supported by the South African

Research Chairs Initiative of the Department of Science and Technology and
National Research Foundation [Fund number: 64800]., and References
WuZ. “Social Determinants of Health: the Role of Effective Communication
in the COVID-19 Pandemic in Developing Countries.” Taylor & Francis,
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/16549716.2020.1788263.

Content: This article talks about how covid-19 has affected many countries
globally and how in many developing countries health systems are weak and
getting information out about the virus is very difficult.
Author: The first author studies humanities in third world countries and the
other author is a part of the Health Economics unit, School of Public Health
and Family Medicine, and part of the Faculty of Health sciences at The
University of Cape Town in south Africa.
BEAM: The research gathered from this article allowed me to see how
countries other than the U.S. have handled the virus even with a weak health
system.
 Sara Schuster
ENC 1102
October 11, 2020
Research Dossier

3- Banay Ph.D., George L. An Introduction to Medical Terminology I. Greek

and Latin Derivations.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC194697/pdf/mlab00247-0013.pdf.
Content: This scholarly piece explains an introduction to medical
terminology that allows the reader to get an understanding of the basics of
Language of Medicine.
Author: The author is a medical librarian of Worcester State Hospital for 30
years.
BEAM: This research how medical terminology comes from a Latin and
Greek origins, which most words or word parts we use today so thus
indicating that the Language of Medicine in universal.

4- Chabner, Davi-Ellen. The Language of Medicine. Elsevier, 2021.

Content: This book is a guide to the word parts and combining from of
medical terminology
Author: This author is teacher and photographer who has written numerous
textbooks on medical terminology.
BEAM: The purpose of this book is mainly for learning purposes but then
again when trying to understand the basics of medical terminology this is an
easy way for a person to gain knowledge of the Language of Medicine.

5- “Communication Resources.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/communication/index.html.

Content: Although this isn’t a single text the CDC website specifically the
“Communication Resources” portion of the website shows different ways to
stay connected, stay healthy, and how to try and prevent the virus from being
contracted.
Author: The CDC is a well-known and well trusted group when it comes to
disease prevention and control.
 Sara Schuster
ENC 1102
October 11, 2020
Research Dossier

BEAM: This website is very trusted by many people in the United States
and the CDC itself analyzes how disease move and react with the public and
also how disease can be prevented and controlled.

6- “Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Glossary of Terms.” Minnesota Dept. of

Health,
www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/materials/glossary.html.

Content: This website gives a list of commonly used terms during the
pandemic and breaks them down and explains what each phrase means so
that if people are confused, they have a way to get the understanding that
they need.
Author: There is no set author for this article in this website but the
information comes directly from the Minnesota Department of Health, so the
information is accurate.
BEAM: Because the information is coming from a Health Department, we
know that they analyze data from their specific state and how they are
handling the virus.

7- Courses, CIP. “What Is Medical Terminology? The Language of Medicine

& Health Science.” Caduceus International Publishing, 23 Jan. 2020,
www.cipcourses.com/resources/what-is-medical-terminology/.
Content: This article goes into depth as to what medical terminology is and
how the Language of Medicine works within the medical field. It goes on to
talk about how Language of medicine is universal. The article uses the
analogy of being in a country not knowing the language and not being able
to communicate because of the language barrier, well in the medical field
when talking with medical terminology there isn’t a problem.
Author: For this article there is not one specific author, but the text was
posted by CIP courses which is an organization that centers around health-
related topics directed for students and teachers.
BEAM: The research found in this article shows how Medical terminology
is universal and can be used all around the world and can be helpful for
doctors who happen to be practicing in other countries.
 Sara Schuster
ENC 1102
October 11, 2020
Research Dossier

8- Jacobsen, Kathryn H., and Emily K. Vraga. “Improving Communication

about COVID‐19 and Emerging Infectious Diseases.” Wiley Online Library,
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 9 May 2020,
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/eci.13225.
Content: This article is based on how communication about Covid-19
should be more apparent because the main thing that has happened during
this pandemic is panic and that is because of the uncertainty from the public
and doctors. The article talks about how because this
Author: The author is part of the Department of Global and Community
Health.
BEAM: The purpose of this article is to show how transparency is essential
for communication for Covid-19 because of the uncertainty of the virus
itself. So, when communication is better than the panic will be settled.

9- “Knowledge of Medical Terminology among Hospital Patients : Nursing

Research.” LWW,
journals.lww.com/nursingresearchonline/Citation/1984/05000/Knowledge_o
f_Medical_Terminology_among_Hospital.12.aspx.

Content: This source shows us how having knowledge of medical

terminology while being a patient is important because communication
between health care providers and patients are essential for accurate and
adequate care and information gathering.
Author: The author of this article happened to be the first lady of New
Jersey who focused largely on issues related to healthcare and education
BEAM: This source solidifies the fact that doctor-patient communication is
important and without having any knowledge of medical terminology that
would almost be impossible without any communication.
 Sara Schuster
ENC 1102
October 11, 2020
Research Dossier

10- Kobayashi, Tetsuro, et al. “Communicating the Risk of Death from

Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19).” MDPI, Multidisciplinary Digital
Publishing Institute, 21 Feb. 2020, www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/9/2/580.

Content: This article talks about how communicating the dangers of death
regarding the virus is important because of the severity of Covid-19
Author: There are numerous authors to this article, but the majority of the
authors are medical doctors or involved with the department of public health
in Japan.
BEAM: The information in this article analyzes how severe this virus
actually is and the authors are trying to get that point across to the public.
They also talk about how the best way to approach the virus because it
seems that it seems to only affect young people mildly and older people
more sever.

11- Pennic, Fred. “Report: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Is Changing

Patient Communications.” Healthcare IT News, 27 Apr. 2020,
hitconsultant.net/2020/04/27/report-covid-19-pandemic-patient-
communications/.
Content: This article is about different state have different priority levels of
communication when it comes to patient engagement. It also touches on how
different states communicate about the virus and the progress they have
made.
Author: The author is seasoned health IT strategist with fourteen years of
experience in providing advisory services to executive leadership at
hospitals and health systems.
BEAM: The article shows how different states are handling the virus and it
can be used to show how the states communicate with each other during the
pandemic.
 Sara Schuster
ENC 1102
October 11, 2020
Research Dossier

12- “Understanding the Importance of Communication in Health Care.”

Regis College Online, 14 Apr. 2020,
online.regiscollege.edu/blog/importance-communication-health-care/.

Content: This article talks about how communication is important in

healthcare because working in the medical field isn’t just performing
procedures, but it is also being able to communicate efficiently to the
patients.
Author: There isn’t just one specific author for this article, but it is a team
of professional from Regis College.
BEAM: The research from this article shows the importance of
communication between doctors and patients because without affective
communication translation can become lost when talking about treatment
and options.