Nomenclatures in medicine

Abstract

There are three major types of nomenclature of disease, which may be termed clinical, epidemiologic, and investigative. The first is used by the physician to record clinical and pathological data on patients. The second, usually less detailed, is used primarily by health statisticians for broad analyses of administrative, epidemiologic, or vital statistical data and by health registrars for recording causes of death and morbidity. The third is the highly specialized and usually evolving nomenclature of the biomedical investigator working in a limited field of research. A list of the recent nomenclatures of the last type in the subspecialties of Internal Medicine, in Oncology, and in Genetics has been included in this report as an appendix.