Abstract
Medical language provides essential communication with patients and among healthcare
providers. Some words appear frequently in this communication, in clinical records,
and in the medical literature, and the use of these words assumes that the listener
and reader understand their meaning in the context related to their current use. Words,
such as syndrome, disorder, and disease, should have obvious definitions but often,
in fact, have uncertain meanings. In particular, the word syndrome should imply a definite and stable association between patient characteristics that
have implications for treatment, prognosis, pathogenesis, and possibly clinical studies.
In many cases the strength of this association is uncertain and the use of the word
represents a convenient shorthand which may or may not improve communication with
patients or other clinicians. Some astute clinicians have identified associations
in their clinical practices, but this is a slow haphazard process. The development
of electronic medical records, internet-based communication, and advanced statistical
techniques has the potential to clarify important features of syndromes. However,
the recent analysis of certain subsets of patients in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic
has demonstrated that even large amounts of information and advanced statistical techniques
using clustering or machine learning may not provide precise separation of patients
into groups. Clinicians should use the word syndrome carefully.
Key words
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
March 6,
2023
Received:
October 16,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Journal Pre-ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2023 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Southern Society for Clinical Investigation.
