25,729 articles
Medical mycology
Medical mycology: study of fungal disease in humans and animals, also called mycopathology; includes actinomycete and allergic disease. Flagship journal Medical Mycology (ISHAM, OUP, IF 3.5), formerly Sabouraudia.
Medical oncology
Medical oncology: the cancer specialty using chemotherapy, hormone therapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy. Established as an internal medicine subspecialty in 1973; distinct from radiation and surgical oncology.
Medical prescription
Medical prescription: an authorized prescriber's order for a medicine specifying drug, dose, route, and quantity. Also called Rx or e-prescription when electronic. Distinguished from OTC drugs; error rates up to 11% in primary care; US EPCS mandates 70% electronic for Medicare Part D controlled substances.
Medical record
Medical record: the documented history and care of a patient, on paper or as an electronic health record (EHR). Spans ancient Egyptian papyri, Weed's 1968 problem-oriented record, and modern EHRs with measured effects on documentation time, medication errors, and patient portal access.
Medical record linkage
Medical record linkage is the method of connecting records belonging to the same person across separate medical databases and registries, underpinning cohort studies, disease registries, and pharmacoepidemiology.
Medical research
Medical research: systematic study of human health and disease spanning basic, translational (T0–T4), clinical, and implementation research; clinical trial Phases 0–IV, ~12–14% Phase 1-to-approval rates, NIH and industry funding, ethics oversight, and reproducibility issues.
Medical social work
Medical social work, also called hospital social work, is a clinical social work field addressing the social and psychological dimensions of illness, beginning at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1905.
Medical specialty
Medical specialty: a defined branch of medicine with focused training and certification, originating in 1830s Paris; includes ABMS 24 boards, UK 65 specialties, UEMS 43 sections, and subspecialization trends.
Medical Staff
Medical staff: the organized body of physicians and practitioners providing care in a hospital or organized facility, governed by bylaws, credentialing, and privileging under rules such as 42 CFR 482.22.
Medical state
Medical state, more commonly called health status, is the level of health of an individual, group, or population, as assessed by the person concerned or by objective measures.
Medical tattoo
Medical tattoo (paramedical tattooing, medical micropigmentation): needle-inserted dermal pigment to restore or camouflage skin for medical reasons, chiefly nipple-areola reconstruction, scar and vitiligo camouflage, with about 91.7% patient satisfaction.
Medical terminology
Medical terminology: the structured vocabulary of health care, built from Greek and Latin prefixes, roots, and suffixes, and codified in standards such as SNOMED CT, ICD-11, and the UMLS Metathesaurus for interoperable clinical documentation.
Medical thoracoscopy
Medical thoracoscopy, also called pleuroscopy or local anesthetic thoracoscopy, is a minimally invasive endoscopic procedure performed under local anesthesia to inspect the pleura, drain fluid, take biopsies, and perform pleurodesis.
Medical tourism
Medical tourism: traveling internationally for medical care such as dental, cosmetic, oncology, fertility, or transplant procedures. Multibillion-dollar market; main U.S. destinations Mexico, Canada, Caribbean; infection is the leading complication.
Medical transcription
Medical transcription converts clinician dictation into patient medical records, historically by medical transcriptionists and now increasingly via speech recognition and ambient AI scribes, with human review still cutting error rates sharply.
Medical ultrasound
Medical ultrasound (sonography) uses high-frequency sound waves, not ionizing radiation, to image the body in real time. Covers transducer physics, Doppler modes, history from Dussik and Donald, safety indices MI and TI, artifacts, and point-of-care use.
Medical University of Lublin
Medical University of Lublin (Uniwersytet Medyczny w Lublin), a public Polish medical university founded in 1950 as the Medical Academy, university status since 2008; about 7,000 students, English-language MD and DDS programs, three clinical hospitals, ranked 6th among Polish medical universities (Perspektywy 2025).
Medical University of Vienna
The Medical University of Vienna, also known as MedUni Vienna, is an Austrian medical university created in 2004 from the University of Vienna's medical faculty.
Medical uses of silver
Medical uses of silver: the silver ion (Ag+) as an antimicrobial in wound dressings, silver sulfadiazine for burns, Credé's silver nitrate eye drops, and silver alloy catheters; clinical evidence is limited and colloidal silver health claims are unsupported.
Medically Underserved Area
Medically Underserved Area (MUA), with Medically Underserved Population (MUP), a US HRSA designation for areas or groups lacking primary care access, scored by the Index of Medical Underservice with a 62.0 cutoff, used for community health center and rural health clinic eligibility.
Medicare (United States)
Medicare is the U.S. federal health insurance program for people 65 and older and some disabled or ESRD/ALS patients, enacted July 30, 1965, with Parts A, B, C, and D covering hospital, medical, private-plan, and drug benefits.
Medicare Advantage
Medicare Advantage (Part C): privately run Medicare plans replacing Original Medicare, renamed from Medicare+Choice by the 2003 MMA; now covers over half of beneficiaries, offering extra benefits, networks, prior authorization, and capitated CMS payment.
Medicare Part D
Medicare Part D, the optional US Medicare outpatient prescription drug benefit created by the 2003 MMA and effective 2006, run through private PDP and MA-PD plans, redesigned by the IRA with a $2,000 out-of-pocket cap from 2025.
Medicated Intrauterine Devices
Medicated intrauterine devices (hormone-releasing IUDs, LNG-IUS, Mirena) are IUDs that release contraceptive agents, copper or levonorgestrel, giving over 99 percent first-year effectiveness for 3 to 12 years.
Medication
Medication, also called medicine or pharmaceutical product, is a drug used to treat, prevent, or diagnose disease. Covers pharmacokinetics, FDA approval, WHO essential medicines (460 since 1977), adherence, and pharmacovigilance.
Medication Adherence
Patient compliance, also called medication adherence, is a patient's conformity to prescribed medication timing, dose, and frequency; distinct from persistence, it affects roughly half of patients and is measured mainly by self-report and refills.
Medication Errors
Medication errors are preventable events that lead to improper drug use or patient harm, occurring at any stage from prescribing to administration and costing an estimated $42 billion annually.
Medication reconciliation
Medication reconciliation is the formal process in which health care professionals verify and complete medication information with patients at care transitions like admission and discharge, aiming to prevent medication errors.
Medication review
A medication review is a structured evaluation of a patient's medicines to detect drug-related problems and recommend interventions, performed by pharmacists and GPs; it reduces inappropriate prescribing but shows no clear effect on mortality.
Medication therapy management
Medication therapy management (MTM) is a pharmacy service in which a pharmacist reviews a patient's complete medication regimen to optimize outcomes and reduce adverse drug events.