Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

MEDLARS® is an acronym that stands for Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System. It is a computer-based system of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) that allows rapid access to NLM’s store of biomedical information. MEDLARS is used for preparing publications like Index Medicus®–the monthly subject/author guide to articles in 3,000 journals. Today, through the Internet…

Better known today as thalassemia (or as beta thalassemia or thalassemia major). The clinical picture of this important type of anemia was first described in 1925 by the pediatrician Thomas Benton Cooley. The name thalassemia was coined by the Nobel Prize winning pathologist George Whipple and the professor of pediatrics Wm Bradford at U. of Rochester because thalassa in Greek means…

The Medifast diet is a low-fat, low-calorie weight loss plan based upon the consumption of specific foods and beverages developed and sold by the Medifast company. The diet plan includes shakes, bars, puddings, soups, oatmeal, hot cocoa, and cappucino. Medifast products contain an appetite suppressor (“Super Citrimax”) that is derived from the southeast Asian plant known as Garcinia Cambogia. The diet…

1. A drug or medicine. 2. The administration of a drug or medicine.

A staff or rod with a snake curled? around it.?This is the Rod?of Aesculapius (also called Asklepios), the ancient?mythical god of medicine. ?Asklepios may have been a real person who was?renowned for his gentle remedies and humane treatment of the?mentally ill.?Today, the staff of Aesculapius is a commonly used symbol of medicine.?It is the symbol of the American Medical…

A school with a curriculum leading to a medical degree. The mission of every medical school includes medical teaching, research, and patient care. All medical schools share the goal of preparing students in the art and science of medicine, and providing them with the background necessary to enter the period of graduate medical education. The years of…

The first medical magazine and the first scientific journal published in the United States. The Medical Repository was founded in 1797 in New York and was published quarterly until 1824. T & J Swords in New York City printed it for the Faculty of Physicians at Columbia College (now Columbia University). The Medical Repository aimed to serve…

A vocation characterized by a specialized body of knowledge of medicine that its members must teach and expand, by a code of ethics and a duty of service that put patient care above self-interest, and by the privilege of self-regulation granted by society.

A prefix employed in medical terminology. Medical words are often put together, cobbled from two or more building blocks. Among these building blocks are the prefixes. Examples of prefixes used in medicine include:

The branch of the law that deals with the application of law to medicine or, conversely, the application of medical science to legal problems. Medical jurisprudence may be involved in cases concerning genetic relationships (eg, paternity testing) or injury or death resulting from violence. An autopsy may be done to help determine the agent of death (eg,…