“No”, women who are pregnant with their first child after a certain age, from 35 and up, “do not call them ‘elderly primiparas'”. And “to that patient who sits in front of your desk you do not offer ‘check-ups’, but a general check-up. No ‘borderline’ cases, if anything at the limit. And the ‘booster’ in Italy is a vaccine booster. While the tablets, the chronically ill granny finds them better in the tablet holder than in the ‘blister’ “. Even jet lag would have an ‘alter ego’ in the tricolor version: “It’s fusopathy”. The message is one: “In medicine there are no untranslatable English words. The doctor’s communication with the patient must be improved” and to do so it is necessary to close in the attic “technicalities, acronyms, forestry, anxious words and with very negative nuances”. It is the invitation that Italo Farnetani, full professor of Pediatrics, addresses to his colleagues in white coats.
The occasion was a study day on the theme ‘Communication in medicine’, promoted by the National Inspectorate of the Voluntary Military Corps of the Italian Red Cross. The first reflection of Farnetani, professor at the Ludes-United Campus of Malta, concerns precisely English which is the ‘universal language’ of science: it has become “the international communication code on a scientific and technical level, as in ancient times it was Latin and Greek. Therefore, when one moves in an international context, one must certainly use English – he points out time.news Salute – but when addressing patients it is essential to speak Italian. The use of forestry makes it more incomprehensible speech, therefore communication with patients “.
But it is not enough to make a clean sweep of the English ‘pocketed’ in the tricolor vocabulary to make the ‘Medichese’ more digestible for everyone. “There are also words of this world that frighten and are used too casually by the coats”, observes Farnetani who suggests “more caution in using anxiogenic terms, such as ‘outbreak'”, the daily mantra in these years of pandemic. “Even the acronyms banned. Again, we have seen illustrious experts in the media cite the available evidence. Perhaps – he specifies – talking about evidence or data would have been a simpler and more direct way to reach the people who listen”.
The pediatrician does not even like the term ‘vaccination hub’, the absolute protagonist in the Covid era. The preferential use of Italian can make a dramatic difference when giving a drug dosage. “Three ‘puffs’ a day? Better 3 sprays a day”, smiles the expert who also wonders: “What does it take away from addressing a patient with many kilograms too much defining him as overweight, rather than obese?”.
In short, Farnetani concludes, “doctors and all health personnel have the responsibility of perfecting the use of language, because language is not a natural organism”, which has a life of its own. “It depends on who speaks it.”