| evidence-based medicine | The process of systematically finding, appraising, and using contemporaneous research findings as the basis for clinical decisions. Evidence-based medicine asks questions, finds and appraises the relevant data, and harnesses that information for everyday clinical practice. Evidence-based medicine follows four steps: formulate a clear clinical question from a patient's problem; search the literature for relevant clinical articles; evaluate (critically appraise) the evidence for its validity and usefulness; implement useful findings in clinical practice. The term "evidence based medicine" (no hyphen) was coined at mcmaster medical school in canada in the 1980's to label this clinical learning strategy, which people at the school had been developing for over a decade. (12 Dec 1998) |
|---|---|
| experimental medicine | The scientific investigation of medical problems by experimentation upon animals or by clinical research. (05 Mar 2000) |
| family medicine | The medical specialty concerned with providing continuous, comprehensive care to all age groups, from first patient contact to terminal care, with special emphasis on care of the family as a unit. (05 Mar 2000) |
| foetal medicine | Study of the growth, development, care, and treatment of the foetus, and of environmental factors harmful to the foetus. Synonym: fetology. (05 Mar 2000) |
| folk medicine | Treatment of ailments outside of organised medicine by remedies and simple measures based upon experience and knowledge handed on from generation to generation. (05 Mar 2000) |
| forensic medicine | The application of medical knowledge to questions of law. (12 Dec 1998) |
| legal medicine | The application of medical knowledge to questions of law. (12 Dec 1998) |
| abstracting and indexing | Shortening or summarizing of documents; assigning of descriptors for referencing documents. (12 Dec 1998) |
| academies and institutes | Organizations representing specialised fields which are accepted as authoritative; may be non-governmental, university or an independent research organization, e.g., national academy of sciences, brookings institution, etc. (12 Dec 1998) |
| accounts payable and receivable | Short-term debt obligations and assets occurring in the regular course of operational transactions. (12 Dec 1998) |
| aged, 80 and over | A person 80 years of age and older. (12 Dec 1998) |
| algae and fungi | Algae represent a group of spore-propagating plants, unicellular or undifferentiated into root, stem, and leaf. They include seaweed and many unicellular fresh water plants, most of which contain chlorophyll. They account for about 90% of the earth's photosynthetic activity. Fungi are eukaryotic, heterotrophic organisms that live as saprobes or parasites and include mushrooms, yeasts, smuts, molds, etc. They lack chlorophyll. (12 Dec 1998) |
| alkyl and aryl transferases | <enzyme> A somewhat heterogeneous class of enzymes that catalyze the transfer of alkyl or related groups (excluding methyl groups). Registry number: EC 2.5 (12 Dec 1998) |
| allergy and immunology | A medical specialty concerned with the hypersensitivity of the individual to foreign substances and protection from the resultant infection or disorder. (12 Dec 1998) |
| alligators and crocodiles | Large, long-tailed reptiles, including caimans, of the order loricata. (12 Dec 1998) |