Human health and medicine

Adult-onset Still's disease

Adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD), the adult form of Still's disease (same as systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis), is a rare autoinflammatory disorder with spiking fever, evanescent rash, arthritis, and hyperferritinaemia, treated with NSAIDs, steroids, and IL-1 or IL-6 biologics.

Advance care planning

Advance care planning (ACP) is a clinical process in which patients, families, and clinicians discuss and document a person's values and preferences for future medical care.

Advance healthcare directive

Advance healthcare directive: written instruction or proxy appointment (living will, durable power of attorney, ADRT) governing medical care during incapacity; covers CPR, ventilation, nutrition; US completion about 36.7% of adults.

Advanced and refractory heart failure

Advanced heart failure, also called stage D or refractory heart failure, is the terminal stage of heart failure, with severe symptoms at rest despite guideline-directed therapy.

Advanced Animal Diagnostics

Advanced Animal Diagnostics is the company founded in 2001 by Rudy Rodriguez, an American biomedical engineer elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2016.

Advanced life support

Advanced life support (ALS) is the set of interventions added to basic life support to treat cardiac arrest: defibrillation, advanced airway management, vascular access, and drugs.

Advanced maternal age

Advanced maternal age (AMA): pregnancy with delivery at age 35 or older, also called geriatric pregnancy. Risks (aneuploidy, miscarriage, preeclampsia, stillbirth) rise continuously, most sharply after 40; ACOG retains the 35 threshold.

Advanced sleep-wake phase disorder

Advanced sleep-wake phase disorder (ASWPD), formerly advanced sleep phase disorder, is a circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorder with persistently early sleep onset and morning awakening, often familial, treated with evening light therapy.

Advanced trauma life support

Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) is the American College of Surgeons' standardized trauma training course, developed in 1978 by James K. Styner, using the ABCDE (now xABCDE) primary survey, taught to over 50,000 learners yearly in 80+ countries.

Advantame

Advantame is a synthetic high-intensity sweetener derived from aspartame, roughly 20,000 times sweeter than table sugar, authorized by the FDA in 2014 for general use in foods.

Adverse drug reaction

Adverse drug reaction (ADR): harmful, unintended response to a drug at normal doses with suspected causality. Also called adverse drug reactions; divided into Type A (dose-dependent, 85-90%) and Type B idiosyncratic reactions; monitored through pharmacovigilance systems like WHO PIDM and FDA MedWatch.

Adverse effect

Adverse effect: a harmful patient outcome seemingly associated with treatment, distinct from adverse event and ADR. Covers type A/B classification, hospital burden (3-6% of US admissions), MedWatch, FAERS/AEMS, and pharmacovigilance reporting.

Adverse outcome pathway

An adverse outcome pathway (AOP) is a toxicology framework, introduced by EPA researchers in 2010, that links a chemical's molecular interaction to an adverse health or ecological effect.

AdvoCare

AdvoCare: Texas dietary supplement and Spark energy drink company founded 1993 by Charles Ragus; formerly multi-level marketing, ended by 2019 FTC $150 million pyramid scheme settlement and MLM ban.

Advocate Health

Advocate Health, also Advocate Health Care (Illinois), Atrium Health (Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama), and Aurora Health Care (Wisconsin), is the third-largest U.S. nonprofit integrated health system, formed December 2, 2022, headquartered in Charlotte, NC, with 69 hospitals across eight states and $6.27 billion in 2025 community benefit.

Aerobic exercise

Aerobic exercise: oxygen-dependent physical activity such as walking, jogging, cycling, swimming; also called aerobics (term coined by Kenneth Cooper). WHO recommends 150–300 min moderate or 75–150 min vigorous weekly; improves mortality, cardiovascular, metabolic, and mental health outcomes.

Aerobics

Aerobics: oxygen-fueled exercise and the class-based fitness format coined by Kenneth Cooper in 1968. Covers physiology, WHO 150–300 min/week guidelines, HIIT vs Zone 2, mortality benefits, and fitness history.

Aerosinusitis

Aerosinusitis, also called barosinusitis or sinus squeeze, is sinus mucosal injury from un equalized ambient pressure change during flight, diving, or hyperbaric exposure; frontal pain and epistaxis are leading symptoms.

Oct 20, 2026

AESEDCPAEPFR trial

AESEDCPAEPFR (NCT07401342) is a completed before-and-after trial at Mexico's Conde de Valenciana eye institute testing duosomal liposomal chemical peels in 11 patients, with improved FACE-Q and SASSQ skin-quality scores.

Aesthetic plastic surgery

Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (the Blue Journal), bimonthly peer-reviewed Springer journal since 1976, official organ of ISAPS, ISSN 0364-216X, MEDLINE-indexed, 2024 impact factor 2.9, distinct from Aesthetic Surgery Journal.

Aetna

Aetna: major US health insurer founded 1853 in Hartford (fire insurance roots, 1819), acquired by CVS Health for $69B in 2018; 27M+ medical members, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, ACA, dental and behavioral health products.

Afamelanotide

Afamelanotide (SCENESSE), synthetic α-MSH analog tridecapeptide and MC1-R agonist; 16 mg subcutaneous implant every 2 months increasing pain-free light exposure in adults with erythropoietic protoporphyria; EU-approved 2014, US 2019.

Afamitresgene autoleucel

Afamitresgene autoleucel (afami-cel, TECELRA, ADP-A2M4) is a MAGE-A4-directed autologous TCR gene therapy, FDA-approved 2024 for HLA-A*02-positive, MAGE-A4-positive unresectable or metastatic synovial sarcoma after prior chemotherapy; first FDA-approved TCR gene therapy.

Afatinib/cetuximab regimen

The afatinib/cetuximab regimen is a cancer treatment pairing oral afatinib with intravenous cetuximab to block EGFR signaling, studied in EGFR-mutant lung cancer but no longer recommended by current guidelines.

Afferent nerve fiber

Afferent nerve fiber: sensory axons (also called afferent neurons, dorsal root fibers) carrying information from receptors to the CNS via dorsal roots; classified Aα, Aβ, Aδ, C or Lloyd groups I–IV by conduction velocity.

Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University

Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University (青岛大学附属医院), founded 1898 as a German naval hospital, is a Grade 3A provincial teaching hospital of Qingdao University with five campuses, 5,000+ beds, and 6 national key clinical specialties.

AFFIRM trial

AFFIRM trial (NCT00974311): phase 3 study of enzalutamide (MDV3100) versus placebo in 1,199 men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer after docetaxel; median survival 18.4 vs 13.6 months. Distinct from the atrial fibrillation AFFIRM trial.

Affluenza

Affluenza, a blend of affluence and influenza, is a popular term for the psychological and behavioral harms of wealth and overconsumption, known through the 2001 de Graaf book and the Ethan Couch affluenza defense.

Affordable Care Act

Affordable Care Act (ACA, Obamacare), P.L. 111-148, signed March 23, 2010: US health reform law with essential health benefits, Medicaid expansion, and marketplace premium tax credits; enhanced subsidies expired end of 2025, cutting enrollment from 21.8 to 19.2 million.