Category: H

An electric, ultrasonic, or radiation-powered scalpel that cuts and coagulates tissues simultaneously.  

Painful tender nodules appearing on the soles of the feet of patients infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa.  

A vacuum tube in which the cathode is electrically heated to incandescence and in which the supply of electrons depends on the temperature of the cathode.  

An evacuated glass envelope containing a positive anode and negative cathode separated by a gap that produces x-ray photons. Electrons are supplied from a heated cathode in the form of a stream that interacts with the anode when a potential difference is placed between the anode and cathode.  

A complex interacting system that protects the host from endogenous and exogenous microorganisms. It includes physical and chemical barriers, inflammatory response, reticuloendothelial system, and immune responses.  

The sharing of resources between two or more hospitals, typically one in an urban, industrialized area and another in a less developed country or region. Twinning is a practice designed to make the technical expertise, infrastructure, and human resources of industrialized health care available to areas with extensive health care needs but relatively limited assets.…

A physician in charge of caring for hospitalized patients. These practitioners are rarely involved in outpatient care; they concentrate their efforts on caring for emergency patients, critical care patients, and patients confined to wards.  

The air of depression and apathy that often surrounds a group of seriously ill patients, especially if they are in an overcrowded ward.  

A form of community-based treatment in which acute medical problems are actively addressed in the patient’s home by trained health care specialists in place of similar care provided in-hospital. It has been used to treat both medical issues (e.g., congestive heart failure, COPD, or end-of-life) as well as postoperative recuperation. Although hospital-at-home care has been…

A species of arthropod more related to the arachnids than to the crustaceans. Its blood is based on copper rather than iron and is used in testing drugs for bacterial contamination.