One of the biggest hurdles for newbie healthcare documentation professionals is mastering medical terminology. Anyone who wants to make a career in the healthcare industry in the areas of medical transcription, medical coding, or medical billing has to learn medical terminology and human anatomy and master these so as to be accurate and flawless in their job. As many non-science graduates join this industry, most of such novice healthcare documentation specialists dread learning the medical terminology. However, according to the experts in healthcare documentation field, learning medical jargon is not an impossible task for even the non-science graduates and with few easy tips, it can be mastered effortlessly.
- Learn the roots: Most of the medical terms are derived from Greek or Latin words. These are the root words for many medical terms. The easiest way to learn medical terms is getting familiarized with these Greek and Latin root words which will help in easily figuring out the meaning of the word and quickly memorizing it. Those who are joining the healthcare documentation jobs should create a spreadsheet with the medical words that have Greek and Latin root words and memorize them.
- Use visual memorization: Human brains memorize images better and faster than words and that’s the reason we imagine the image of a tree when we hear the word tree rather than thinking of the spelling. Remembering words with relative images is another way of memorizing difficult medical terms. To make long-lasting imagery of a term, the visualization has to be done with greater specification and with more details.
- Learn the patterns: By understanding the pattern in a medical term, the healthcare documentation specialists can learn medicine words much easier. Usually, the medical terms are a combination of a prefix, a root word, and a suffix. By breaking down the words according to these patterns, wherever applicable, these words can be mastered with greater ease.
- Use flash cards: Although an old method of learning, it is one of the best ways to learn something new. By making flash cards for difficult words with the term on one side and the definition or meaning on the other side, new and challenging terms can be learnt easily.
- Use technology: Using technology is a great fun way to learn the medical terminology on the go. There are several free medical terminology apps that can be used to enhance medicine language skills. If the app is installed on a mobile phone, the user can keep learning new words and revise learnt words every now and then whenever possible.
Joining the best healthcare documentation companies that offer excellent training and development programs to their employees is the first and best way to learn medical terminology for an enthusiastic medical transcriptionist.