Category: M

The relationship of medicine to the mind or to mental illness.  

Concerning both medical and mechanical aspects of treating patients.  

A symbol used by Native Americans to represent wholeness and balance. The medicine wheel consists of a circle with four quadrants representing spiritual, mental, physical, and emotional planes of existence.  

The way that a drug is introduced into the body. The route of administration is chosen according to the speed of absorption desired and the site of action of the medication. Some medications are formulated for a specific route only and must be given in that manner. It is important that medicines be administered as…

Any process that ensures that the medications given to and taken by the patient are the same as those prescribed by the health care provider. Medication errors occur frequently when patients suffer new illnesses or when they are admitted to or discharged from health care facilities. Some of these errors may be limited by making…

The number of dispensed medication doses divided by the number of days in a unit of time (e.g., 1 year). The MPR can be used to estimate the degree to which patients with chronic medical conditions comply with prescribed drug therapies.  

A drug experience that results in an undesired or unintended response to drug therapy. The term includes both adverse drug reactions and medication errors. An undesired or unintended response to the intended choice and dosage of a drug is called an adverse drug reaction. An error or mistake in the administration of a drug is…

A component of Medicare that gives beneficiaries the option of receiving health care from privately managed health plans.  

Infectious or physically dangerous medical or biological waste. Included are discarded blood and blood products; waste from the pathology department, including body parts, tissues, or fluids discarded during surgery or at autopsy; contaminated animal carcasses; animal body parts and bedding; sharps; discarded preparations made from genetically altered living organisms and their products.  

An estimate of the health of a patient awaiting organ transplantation. Patients judged to have graver medical conditions are considered to have a more pressing need for donor organs than less gravely ill patients.