Lesson 3: Medical Specialties

Happy MedSpanish Sunday! How was everyone’s week? Mine was busy—my mom had surgery to remove a bone cyst in her hand, worked ~60 hours this week, and had a conference about interventional pain management. Woooo, ortho & MSK! 
 
Before we go into our lesson, I usually like to share a moment in my own practice where I had to use my Spanish. As you can tell, it was all about ortho this week—fractures, sprains, dislocations. A common chief complaint in Urgent Care is back pain. This week’s case is a 71-year old woman with “dolor de espalda” (back pain) x 1 month that she remembers started after going over a speed bump. X-ray showed two vertebral compression fractures in her thoracic spine. Ouch! She had a history of osteoporosis but patient was not taking alendronate as recommended. So, this week’s term is “back pain.”

Pain= Dolor
Back= espalda
Back pain = Dolor de espalda

Medical Specialties

In Family Medicine/Urgent Care, you will often be sending a patient to other specialties. Knowing the term for Neurologist in Spanish is great, but if you cannot quite recall the term, don’t fret! You can always use the phrase “specialist of…{insert organ or organ system}.”  I use this phrase quite a lot. Maybe even more than the actual terms. Why? Because let’s be honest..some patients are not familiar with the correct terminology. Much in the same way that an English-speaking patient will ask with a confused look, “Nephrologist, what is THAT?”

​So, if you ask me..the million dollar phrase to learn in this lesson is:

 “Especialista de…….” 
Translation: specialist of…..{insert organ or system}” 

Then you can refer to my MedSpanish Lesson 2—anatomy & organ systems to put things together!

Some examples:
 
"Especialista de la piel"
Literal translation: Specialist of the skin
Meaning: dermatology 
 
"Especialista de los riñones"
Literal translation: Specialist of the kidneys
Meaning: nephrology
 
"Especialista del corazón"
Literal translation: Specialist of the heart
Meaning: Cardiology

Specialities 

Primary care doctor = Doctor primario
Primary care provider =Practicante primaro
 

​
​Neurologist= Neurólogo

ENT= Otorrinolaringólogo
Honestly, this is a common tongue twister amongst (nerdy) Spanish speaking kids. Can you say “otorrinolaringólogo fast 5 times without messing up?” Lol! I very rarely use this term when speaking to patients. I say...

Especialista de los oidos, la nariz, y la garganta
Literal translation: Specialist of…ear, nose, &throat.”

Most will understand this instead of otorinolarinblahblahblah

Cardiologist = Cardiólogo


Pulmonologist= Neumonólogo


Gastroenterologist= Gastroenterólogo

Urologist= Urólogo

Pediatrician= Pediatra

Surgeon= Cirujano

Ortho=Orthopedista 

Psychologist= psicólogo

Did I cover your specialty? I sure hope so! Next week we'll be doing a little more anatomy!