Fast and logical explanations of more than 67,000 words and phrases

The 4th edition of the Slovenian Medical e-Dictionary is the result of the efforts of more than 100 authors, the most respected Slovene professionals at the Faculty of Medicine in Ljubljana. They have composed a dictionary which includes more than 67,000 entries, including more than 38,400 words and nearly 29,000 phrases.

“We have to remember that the dictionary does not replace textbooks and professional literature, but makes it easier to use them by explaining the expressions used in professional spoken and written language. The dictionary explains the meanings of medical expressions and shows how write, inflect and pronounce them. It shows which expressions are more and which are less appropriate. The dictionary is a useful tool for students of medicine and dentistry, physicians, dentists, pharmacists, biologists who work in the field of healthcare, students and graduates of medical schools, editors, translators, and journalists. It helps non-professional users to understand lay medical literature and all kinds of medical information found in the media. And it helps patients understand the expressions that their doctors use during diagnosis and treatment,” said Dr. Dušan Sket, the executive editor of the dictionary.

The 4th edition of the Slovenian Medical e-Dictionary is a continuation of the successful cooperation between the Faculty of Medicine in Ljubljana and Lek, a Sandoz company, which have been working together since the first edition of the Slovenian Medical e-Dictionary. As a result of their combined efforts, a CD version was released in 2004, which was aimed primarily at professionals. Now Lek has enabled the publication of the 4th edition of the dictionary on its website for the general public. “We have made it possible to access the dictionary via the Internet, a modern communications tool which is used by continually increasing numbers of people,” says Katja Razinger, Head of Prescription Drugs Marketing at Lek, who adds: “At Lek, a Sandoz company, we know how important it is for people to be as familiar as possible with their conditions. During treatment we often encounter a series of medical expressions that we don’t understand, and do not have the opportunity to ask professionals to explain them. Therefore we were happy to continue our cooperation with the Faculty of Medicine and enable the publication of the Slovenian Medical e-Dictionary on the Internet, which will undoubtedly make it easier for many people to understand their diseases or symptoms.”

Franc Zalar spoke on behalf of the Slovenian Cardiovascular Health Association, a non-governmental organization whose mission is to prevent cardiovascular diseases: “For our association, knowledge is one of the most important tools for achieving our objectives. Today, people in Slovenia are much more aware of the risk of contracting cardiovascular diseases, and their familiarity with medical expressions is better than it was in the past. By putting the medical e-dictionary on the web we have obtained new possibilities for acquiring the required knowledge. We would like to congratulate everyone who decided to put out this edition, and everyone who contributed in any way to the publication of this dictionary. This dictionary will make it much easier for the Slovenian Cardiovascular Health Association to fulfill its mission.”

About the Slovenian Medical Dictionary

The 4th edition of the Slovenian Medical e-Dictionary includes:

• professional terminology of pre-clinical disciplines (biophysics, biochemistry, cell biology, anatomy, histology and embryology, physiology, pharmacology and toxicology, human genetics, microbiology and immunology, pathology, pathological physiology, biomedical informatics, medical deontology, history of medicine)
,
• professional terminology of clinical disciplines (anesthesiology, dermatovenerology, physical and rehabilitation medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, infectious diseases, internal medicine, surgery, occupational medicine, neurology, ophthalmology, oncology and radiotherapy, orthopedics, otorhinolaryngology, pediatrics, psychiatry, legal medicine),
• professional terminology of dentistry including all particularities,
• professional terminology of social-medicine disciplines (social medicine, family medicine, hygiene),
• Slovenian professional terminology,
• professional terminology in Latin and Greek (e.g. choroiditis, neoplasia, infarctus myocardii),
• Slovenicized Latin and Greek-Latin terminology,
• terms to be avoided,
• medical abbreviations (e.g. DNA, AIDS) and
• historical personalities
(e.g. Hippocrates, Alzheimer).

The third, expanded print edition was also published with the support of Lek, a Sandoz company, in 2007. It includes 67,319 entries, and the number of contributors – supplies of definitions, editors, linguistic consultants and computer professionals – was increased to 115.

In 2004, the second edition of the Slovenian Medical e-Dictionary was published jointly by the Faculty of Medicine in Ljubljana and Lek, a Sandoz company, first in an electronic version that was available in CD form to medical and pharmaceutical professionals.

The first print edition of the Slovenian Medical Dictionary was published in 2002 and became an indispensible part of the professional library of everyone who works in medicine and pharmacy. The first edition appeared after 23 years of work by 98 contributors, and included 60,700 entries. Lek also sponsored the publication of the first edition.