| life cycle | The entire life history of a living organism. (05 Mar 2000) |
|---|---|
| life-cycle costing | A method of comparing costs of equipment or buildings based on original costs plus all operating and maintenance costs over the useful life of the equipment. Future costs are discounted. (05 Dec 1998) |
| life cycle stages | The continuous sequence of changes undergone by metamorphosing insects and other animals during the developmental process. (12 Dec 1998) |
| life events | Occurrences in one's daily life, some of which act as stressors. (05 Mar 2000) |
| life expectancy | <epidemiology> Longevity, the average length of life of individuals in a population. (05 Dec 1998) |
| life instinct | The instinct of self-preservation and sexual procreation; the basic urge toward preservation of the species. Synonym: sexual instinct. (05 Mar 2000) |
| life stress | Events or experiences that produce severe strain, e.g., failure on the job, marital separation, loss of a love object. (05 Mar 2000) |
| life support care | Care provided patients requiring extraordinary therapeutic measures in order to sustain and prolong life. (12 Dec 1998) |
| life support systems | Systems that provide all or most of the items necessary for maintaining life and health. Provisions are made for the supplying of oxygen, food, water, temperature and pressure control, disposition of carbon dioxide and body waste. The milieu may be a spacecraft, a submarine, or the surface of the moon. In medical care, usually under hospital conditions, life support care is available. (12 Dec 1998) |
| life table | A representation of the probable years of survivorship of a defined population of subjects; since survivorship is changed by new methods of prevention or treatment, a diachronic study is commonly used because the main interest lies in the composite structure of the current population. (In the summarizing technique used to describe the pattern of mortality and survival in a population, survivors to age x are denoted by the symbol lx and the expectation of life at age x is denoted by the symbol x. (05 Mar 2000) |
| life tables | Summarizing techniques used to describe the pattern of mortality and survival in populations. These methods can be applied to the study not only of death, but also of any defined endpoint such as the onset of disease or the occurrence of disease complications. (12 Dec 1998) |
| academic medical centres | Medical complexes consisting of medical school, hospitals, clinics, libraries, administrative facilities, etc. (12 Dec 1998) |
| advance medical directives | Advance directives preserve the person's right to accept or reject a course of medical treatment even after that person becomes mentally or physically incapacitated to the point of being unable to communicate those wishes. There ared two basic types of advance directives: (1) a living will, in which the person outlines specific treatment guidelines that are to be followed by health care providers; (2) a health care proxy (also called a power of attorney for healthcare decision making) in which the person designates a trusted individual to make medical decisions in the event that he or she becomes too incapacitated to make such decisions. Advance directive requirements vary greatly from one jurisdiction to another and should therefore be drawn up in consultation with an attorney who is familiar with the laws of the particular jurisdiction. (This entry is based upon material from the National MS Society). (12 Mar 2000) |
| american medical association | Professional society representing the field of medicine. (12 Dec 1998) |
| genetics, medical | A field of human genetics which entails the reliable prediction of certain human disorders as a function of the lineage and/or genetic makeup of any two parents or potential parents. (12 Dec 1998) |