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Resources: Communicate with Providers

Talking With Your Doctor (MedlinePlus)
This section of MedlinePlus directs you to numerous resources that help you prepare for your medical appointments and communicate with your doctor.

Asking Key Questions (Ask Me 3)
Ask Me 3 is a non-profit collaboration between The Partnership for Clear Health Communication and the National Patient Safety Foundation to promote health literacy. Their mission is to promote three important questions for patients to ask their providers:

What is my main problem?
What do I need to do?
Why is it important for me to do this?

Questions Are the Answer (Agency for Agency for Health Research and Quality)
AHRQ is the lead Federal agency charged with the promotion of evidence-based decision-making to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans. AHRQ has created this very helpful resource which enables you to customize a list of questions around getting prescriptions, having medical tests, receiving diagnoses, considering treatment, or planning for surgery.

Deciphering Medspeak (Medical Library Association)
The Medical Library Association is the organization of health science librarians. They have created this resource to help patients translate medical jargon into easy to understand language. In addition to helping you decipher commonly used "Medspeak Terms" they have created brochures with a list of disease-specific terms covering breast cancer, diabetes, eye disease, heart disease, HIV-Aids and stroke. They have also created “Rx Riddles Solved,” to help you translate the mysterious shorthand doctors and pharmacists use in prescribing medications.

MedTerms Medical Dictionary (MedicineNet.com)
MedTerms medical dictionary is a reference created by MedicineNet.com, a company owned and operated by WebMD. Their doctors have provided easy-to-understand explanations for over 16,000 medical terms.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary
This free online version of the well-regarded Merriam-Webster dictionary now includes access to their medical dictionary.

Stedman’s Medical Dictionary
This is the free online version of the well-regarded Stedman’s Medical Dictionary (27th Edition).

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Resources: Communicate with Providers