MeDiCaLeSe - FAQ and Thanks

Frequently asked questions

Search engine

Q: How do I look up a word if I don't know how to spell it?

A: Make your best guess, using the smallest number of letters possible. This both speeds up the search and increases your chances of finding a match. The search engine looks for an exact match to the string of characters you enter. It will not find misspellings or approximations of terms which are in the database, such as:

koksaki for coxsackie
averascular for avascular
vaignal for vaginal
distaticokenesia for dysdiadochokinesia

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Q: How would I get just the list of new words added in the daily update?

A: Sorry, the new words are not available separately. We spend significant time researching terminology, which includes not only adding new words, but refining definitions and in some cases removing entries from the list. The value of the database is its interactivity with itself.

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Q: What's up with the ever-changing word count?

A: The database changes every day and different programs count words differently. Medical transcriptionists know there are many methods of counting lines! I was thinking the official word count was on the low side. Just for curiosity, I counted up the words in the database as of May 1, 2007 with two programs and two browsers, and got the following results:

Translator's Abacus	word counting software	303,815
Edit Plus	plain text editor	337,203
Firefox 1.0.7	browser	236,149
Internet Explorer 6	browser	236,149

I'm not about to count every word in the database by hand. I'll just tell you it usually grows by 100+ words each day and leave it at that.

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Q: I tried to search just now and the site is telling me there are only a few thousand words in the database!

A: This happens for a minute or two every day while the site is being updated. Just refresh the screen and everything will be there.

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Q: I'm getting too much information. I searched for the word 'catheter' and got more than 400 results!

A: This isn't a bug, it's a feature ;-). You could take advantage of this to list all the catheters in our database, or all the drugs in our database whose names end in -lide (enter 'drugs' in the first box, 'lide' in the second), or every syndrome we know about. The possibilities are endless!

Here is a tip for registered users: Let's say you're planning a vacation in France, and you want to be prepared to shop for medications while you're there. Run a search on "available" or just "avail" AND "France". You'll get a printable list of every French drug MeDiCaLeSe knows about. Run it a second time and search for "avail" AND "Europe" as some drugs are approved for all European Union countries.

When you search for a text string, include only the letters that you know are in the string.

Did you know you can exclude one word from the search results? Well, you do now ;-)

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Q: I got no results looking for 'Klonopin' (or another favorite word here) and I'm certain there is a drug by that name.

A: Yes, but Klonopin has been out for a number of years, so we didn't include it. This is a database of terms that are new or otherwise confusing or difficult to find.

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Q: How do I know I can trust the information I find here?

A: Nothing goes into the database until we have checked it thoroughly with at least two independent sources. If you find an error, please tell us so that we may correct it.

Although MeDiCaLeSe is intended to serve the medical transcription community, anyone who may benefit from the information here is welcome to make use of it. As always, use caution on the internet, and consult your physician if you have a medical problem!

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Q: How do you know all this?

A: We are medical transcriptionists with many years of experience transcribing all medical specialties. We are confronted with new words every single day, and we must verify the proper spelling and usage of all of these words. We made this website to help us save time and do our jobs better.

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Q: "Medicalese"? Isn't that a derisive term?

A: Well, yeah. But anyone in healthcare knows medical jargon is here to stay, and, as transcriptionists, we need to be proficient in it.

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Q: Do I have to buy the book too?

A: No, of course not, but if you do more than five searches a day you might want to think about it.

September 25, 2007: MeDiCaLeSe 2007 is now available as a printable ebook at the publisher's website.

Excerpt in .PDF format

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Website

Q: Who or what are H.W.D. and M.C.L.D. on the food calculator page?

A: My parents. I made the food calculator for them because they are older people, and sometimes do not eat as much as they should. Their specific dietary requirements would not necessarily apply to anyone else.

The food calculator can assist with losing or gaining weight, as well as keeping track of calories, sodium, etc. It is all on one page. Feel free to view the source, copy it to your own computer, and modify it to reflect the foods you eat. Admittedly the code looks cryptic, but this is just the nature of the javascript programming language.

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Acknowledgments

The php search engine could never have been made without EditPlus, the greatest programmers' text editor in the world, and David Sklar and Adam Trachtenberg's fabulous PHP Cookbook.

Some of the code on this site was downloaded from

.

The typing test is by Schubert_94_2000, with slight modifications.

3D calendar by Bogdan Naleszkiewicz.

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Privacy and Sponsorship

We are an affiliate partner of Powell's Bookstore, of Portland, Oregon, and we receive a commission on sales made through linking with powells.com. This helps us to defray the costs of maintaining and developing the site.

The search results page for guest users contains targeted ads served by Google Adwords. MeDiCaLeSe does not choose or endorse these ads.

This website does not collect medical information from visitors. There is not now, and never has been, any personally identifiable medical information on this website. We endeavor to honor or exceed all United States legal requirements for medical and health information privacy.

For registered users: You have been given the url to a search page for registered users only. If you do not have it, please contact the webmaster.

For guest users: Effective February 1, 2006, guest users are limited to five (5) searches per day. This requires the use of a cookie on the search results page only.

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