Medicine isn’t just a profession, or a job, or a passion. It’s like a way of life… If you dunno what I mean, just imagine, that you understand a whole different meaning from the norm when you see such abbreviations…
SLE = Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (Seletar Expressway)
CBD = Common Bile Duct (Central Business District)
BBB = Blood Brain Barrier or Bundle Branch Block (Bed, Bath & Breakfast)
PAP = Papanicolau (People’s Action Party)
HP = Helicobacter pylori (Hewlett Packard or Harry Potter)
DOC = Diet of choice (instead of just ‘doc’, like once I heard this student nurse go… Doc, doc… Dr: Yes? nurse: Er, I’m supposed to call you, I think, cuz the orders wrote DOC)
ET = Endotracheal ( Extra-Terrestial)
IT = Interthecal (Information Technology)
ID = Infectious Diseases (Identification)
MI = Myocardial Infarct or Mitral Incompetence (Mission Impossible)
MS = Mitral Stenosis (Miss)
PE = Pulmonary Embolism (Physical Education)
ROM = Range of Movement (Registry of Marriages)
SOAP = Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan (instead of just plain soap for bathing…)
KS = Kaposi’s Sarcoma (Kiasu)
AKA = Above Knee Amputation (Also Known As)
ETC = Electron Transport Chain (Et Cetera)
CDC = Communicable Disease Centre (Community Development Centre)
PSC = Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (Public Service Commission)
LA = Local Anaesthesia (Los Angeles)
CCB = Calcium Channel Blockers (instead of erm… CCB, the hokkien swear words that is part of every Sg man’s education when they go serve National Service)
MARS = Molecular Adsorbents Recirculation System (instead of the Mars choc bar)
And many more… Hey feel free to add on to the list!
