25,729 articles
Mediastinum
Mediastinum: central thoracic compartment between the pleural sacs, holding the heart, trachea, esophagus, and thymus; divided traditionally into four compartments and, by the ITMIG CT-based standard, into prevascular, visceral, and paravertebral compartments.
Medicaid
Medicaid, the joint federal-state U.S. health insurance program created by the Social Security Amendments of 1965, covers low-income children, pregnant women, seniors, and people with disabilities; over 77.9 million enrollees, FMAP 50-83%, ACA expansion to 138% FPL, 2025 law adds work requirements.
Medical abortion
Medical (medication) abortion, the abortion pill: mifepristone plus misoprostol or misoprostol alone to end an early pregnancy. FDA-approved through 10 weeks in the US; WHO supports self-management to 12 weeks; safe, effective, and now nearly two-thirds of US abortions.
Medical anthropology
Medical anthropology: anthropological subfield studying health, illness, and medicine as biosocial phenomena; also called health anthropology by some scholars. Founded formally in the late 1970s; ethnographic and mixed methods.
Medical Assistance
Medical Assistance: financing of medical care for public assistance recipients (MeSH D008483); in the US, Medicaid (Title XIX, 1965) and CHIP, jointly financed federal-state coverage for low-income people, now facing 2027 work requirements.
Medical assistant
Medical assistant: an allied health professional doing administrative and clinical tasks (vital signs, scheduling, records) under physician supervision in the US. About 833,900 jobs in 2025, median pay $45,690, 13% projected growth 2025–2035; CMA (AAMA) is a main credential.
Medical billing
Medical billing: converting healthcare services into coded insurance claims, submitting them to payers such as Medicare and private insurers, and following up on payment; distinct from broader revenue cycle management and a major driver of U.S. administrative costs.
Medical cannabis
Medical cannabis (medical marijuana): use of cannabis plant or cannabinoids THC and CBD for treatment. Key evidence for chronic pain, chemotherapy nausea, MS spasticity; FDA-approved Epidiolex, dronabinol, nabilone; US Schedule III rescheduling April 2026.
Medical cannabis in the United States
Medical cannabis in the United States: state-run programs (38 comprehensive states plus DC and territories) authorizing cannabis for qualifying conditions despite federal Schedule I status; covers FDA-approved cannabinoids, efficacy evidence, testing, costs, and 2024 rescheduling.
Medical certificate
Medical certificate: a clinician-issued document attesting to illness, fitness, or cause of death. Includes the UK fit note (Med 3, introduced 2010, digital since 2022), FAA airman medical certificates, and death certification.
Medical College of Wisconsin
Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), private medical school in Milwaukee founded 1893, renamed from Marquette University School of Medicine in 1970; MD program of 204 students per class, Froedtert Hospital affiliation, Green Bay and Central Wisconsin campuses.
Medical Council of India
Medical Council of India (MCI), India's statutory regulator of medical education and practice, established 1934, reconstituted under the 1956 Act, dissolved 25 September 2020 and replaced by the National Medical Commission.
Medical Day Care
Medical day care (partial hospitalization) is daytime institutional health care where patients return home at night. Covers origins in 1933 Moscow and Cameron's 1946 Montreal day hospital, plus trial evidence in geriatric, psychiatric, cancer, and antenatal care.
Medical degree
Medical degree: MD or MBBS university qualification certifying physician training. Key facts: first US school 1765, Flexner report 1910 closed 89 of 155 schools, USMLE licensure, UK GMC oversight.
Medical device
A medical device is an instrument, machine, implant, or software intended for a medical purpose, such as diagnosing or treating disease, without acting chemically like a drug.
Medical diagnosis
Medical diagnosis: identifying a disease, condition, or injury from symptoms, history, exam, and tests. Uses differential diagnosis; diagnostic errors affect about 5% of U.S. outpatient visits per NASEM 2015.
Medical doctor
Medical doctor (physician): a licensed practitioner who diagnoses and treats disease and injury. Covers M.D./D.O. degrees, training, specialties, pay, workforce density, shortages, and professionalization history.
Medical education
Medical education: training of physicians across undergraduate, postgraduate, and continuing stages, organized around competency-based curricula, the WHO 2022 UHC framework, and growing AI integration.
Medical error
Medical error: preventable mistakes in health care, from diagnostic and medication errors to wrong-site surgery. Central to patient safety since the 1999 IOM report To Err Is Human, which estimated 44,000–98,000 US hospital deaths yearly.
Medical examiner
Medical examiner: appointed physician, usually a forensic pathologist, who investigates sudden and violent deaths, performs autopsies, and certifies cause and manner of death, unlike the elected, often non-physician coroner.
Medical Expenditure Panel Survey
The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) is an ongoing set of US household, provider, and employer surveys sponsored by AHRQ that produce nationally representative data on health insurance coverage and medical expenditures.
Medical expulsive therapy
Medical expulsive therapy is drug treatment, usually with an alpha-blocker such as tamsulosin, given to help a ureteral stone 10 mm or smaller pass in the urine without surgery.
Medical Futility
Medical futility: clinical-ethics concept for interventions unable to deliver their designed benefit; categories include physiological, imminent-demise, lethal-condition, and qualitative futility; shaped by Wanglie, Baby K, and the Texas Advance Directives Act.
Medical history
Medical history: the patient's account of symptoms, past illness, and circumstances elicited by clinicians. Rooted in Hippocratic case records, standardized by Osler at Johns Hopkins in 1893, and subject to measurable recall bias.
Medical image analysis
Medical image analysis: computer science field applying computer vision, machine learning, and deep learning to X-ray, CT, MRI, ultrasound, and OCT images for diagnosis; flagship journal Medical Image Analysis (1996) and MICCAI meeting.
Medical imaging
Medical imaging: diagnostic tests (X-ray, CT, MRI, ultrasound, nuclear medicine) that picture the body's interior for diagnosis, treatment planning, and monitoring; began with Röntgen's 1895 X-rays; includes radiologists, safety, and ACR appropriateness criteria.
Medical Imaging Interaction Toolkit (MITK)
The Medical Imaging Interaction Toolkit (MITK) is a free, open-source C++ framework for medical image computing developed at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg.
Medical laboratory
Medical laboratory (clinical laboratory): facility testing human specimens for diagnosis, prevention, and treatment. About 14 billion US tests yearly in 266,000+ CLIA-certified labs; ISO 15189 is the main accreditation standard; most errors are pre-analytical.
Medical laboratory scientist
Medical laboratory scientist (MLS), formerly medical technologist (MT): bachelor's-level US laboratory professional testing blood, urine, and tissue in hematology, chemistry, microbiology, blood bank, and molecular benches; ASCP/AMT/AAB certified, $62,930 median pay, four-state licensure.
Medical management of uterine fibroids
Medical management of uterine fibroids is the drug treatment of fibroid symptoms, chiefly heavy menstrual bleeding, using GnRH agonists and antagonists, SPRMs, tranexamic acid, and hormonal contraceptives.