Medical Terminology Systems: A Body Systems Approach 8th Edition

Book Preface

Building on the success of previous editions, Medical Terminology Systems, 8th edition, continues its well-established record of presenting medical word building principles based on competencybased curricula. Because of the pedagogical success of previous editions, the 8th edition continues its structural design as a textbook–workbook that complements all teaching formats, including traditional lecture, distance learning, and independent or self-paced study. The 8th edition continues to present eponyms without showing the possessive form, such as Bowman capsule, Cushing syndrome, and Parkinson disease. Medical dictionaries as well as the American Association for Medical Transcription and the American Medical Association support these changes.

The popular basic features of the previous edition have been enhanced and expanded. The updated body systems chapters include diseases and conditions, current medical and diagnostic procedures, treatments, and pharmaceutical agents. The textbook continues to present authentic medical records with activities designed to enhance application of medical terminology to the “real world of medicine.” This approach provides the essential tools students of various learning levels need to communicate effectively in today’s health-care settings.

As in earlier editions, illustrations that clearly and accurately enhance textual material are integrated throughout the textbook. Medical Terminology Systems, 8th edition, includes over 36 new illustrations specifically designed to portray real-life medical conditions, procedures, and treatments. The illustrations supplement course content in new and interesting ways and help make difficult concepts clear. Unique to this edition are innovative illustrations created for Chapters 1 through 3 to help students understand the various applications of suffixes and prefixes in word building. Also new to the 8th edition are Documenting Health-Care Activities sections in each body systems chapter. These sections emphasize the role of the electronic medical record (EMR) in today’s health-care industry.

Documenting Health-Care Activities are first introduced in Chapter 4, Body Structure. The introduction provides information related to the transition of the medical record from a paper medical chart to a digital version. Reinforcement of this introduction continues throughout each body systems chapter so that students fully understand how today’s digital medical record allows practitioners to electronically monitor and track the history of a patient’s medical treatment.

Although the fundamental characteristics of the 8th edition remain the same as those in previous editions, this edition offers significant updates and enhancements to aid in the learning process and improve retention of medical terms. To achieve this goal, each illustration in the textbook presents clinically accurate and aesthetically pleasing representations of anatomical structures, disease conditions, and medical procedures. In addition, ICD-10-PCS replacement terms for discontinued eponyms are summarized in Appendix

H. As in previous editions, we continue to incorporate the excellent suggestions offered by instructors and students and appreciate all of their contributions. Undoubtedly, the recommendations have helped make Medical Terminology Systems: A Body Systems Approach a leading textbook in educational institutions and one that continues to be well received by instructors and students. Here is a brief summary of chapter content:
• Chapter 1 explains the techniques of medical word building using basic word elements.
• Chapter 2 categorizes major surgical, diagnostic, symptomatic, and grammatical suffixes.
• Chapter 3 presents major prefixes of position, number and measurement, direction, and other parameters.
• Chapter 4 introduces anatomical, physiological, and pathological terms. It also presents combining forms denoting cellular and body structures, body position and direction, and regions of the body, in addition to combining forms related to diagnostic methods and pathology. General diagnostic and therapeutic terms are described and provide a solid foundation for specific terms addressed in the body systems chapters that follow.
• Chapters 5 through 16 are organized according to specific body systems and may be taught in any sequence. These chapters include key anatomical and physiological terms, basic anatomy and physiology, a body systems connections table, and a comprehensive table of word elements, including combining forms, suffixes, and prefixes. The remaining chapter material consists of a disease focus section, followed by tables that include updated diseases and conditions; diagnostic, surgical, and therapeutic procedures; pharmacology; and abbreviations. Each body systems chapter concludes with several learning activities that assess comprehension of material and medical record activities that illustrate various clinical applications and reinforce medical record documentation.
• Appendix A: Answer Key contains answers to each learning activity to validate proficiency and provide immediate feedback for student assessment. Although the answer key for the terminology section of each Documenting Health- Care Activity is not included in this appendix, it is available to adopters in the Instructor’s Guide.
• Appendix B: Common Abbreviations and Symbols includes an updated, comprehensive list of medical abbreviations and their meanings and an updated summary of common symbols.
• Appendix C: Glossary of Medical Word Elements contains alphabetical lists of medical word elements and their meanings. This appendix presents two methods for wordelement indexing—first by medical word element, then by English term.
• Appendix D: Index of Genetic Disorders lists genetic disorders presented in the textbook.
• Appendix E: Index of Clinical, Laboratory, and Imaging Procedures lists radiographic and other diagnostic imaging procedures presented in the textbook.
• Appendix F: Index of Pharmacology lists drug classifications presented in the textbook.
• Appendix G: Index of Oncological Terms lists oncological diseases presented in the textbook.
• Appendix H: Index of Discontinued Abbreviations and Eponyms summarizes abbreviations discontinued in medical charts. It also contains discontinued eponyms along with their replacement terms for coding purposes.