Terms used in medical research
These phrases and their definitions may help you interpret the mysterious language of medical research:
“IN MY EXPERIENCE” = Once.
“IN CASE AFTER CASE” = Twice.
“IN A SERIES OF CASES” = Thrice.
“IT IS BELIEVED THAT” = I think.
“IT IS GENERALLY BELIEVED THAT” = A couple of others think so, too.
“IT HAS LONG BEEN KNOWN” = I didn’t look up the original reference.
“A CAREFUL ANALYSIS OF OBTAINABLE DATA” = Three pages of notes were obliterated when I knocked over that glass of beer.
“IT IS CLEAR THAT MUCH ADDITIONAL WORK WILL BE REQUIRED BEFORE A COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF THIS PHENOMENON OCCURS” = Wow, I dunno.
“AFTER ADDITIONAL STUDY BY MY COLLEAGUES” = Gosh, they dunno either.
“THANKS ARE DUE TO JOE BLOTZ FOR ASSISTANCE WITH THE EXPERIMENT AND TO CINDY SMARTZ FOR VALUABLE DISCUSSIONS” = Mr. Blotz did the work and Ms. SMARTZ explained to me what it meant.
“A DEFINITE TREND IS EVIDENT” = This information is practically meaningless.
“WHILE IT HAS NOT BEEN POSSIBLE TO PROVIDE DEFINITE ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS” = It was an unsuccessful experiment, but I still hope to get it published.
“THREE OF THE SAMPLES WERE CHOSEN FOR DETAILED STUDY” = The other results didn’t make any sense.
“TYPICAL RESULTS ARE SHOWN” = This was the prettiest graph.
“THESE RESULTS WILL BE IN A SUBSEQUENT REPORT” = I might get around to this sometime, if pushed and/or funded.
“CORRECT WITHIN AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE” = Wrong.
“ACCORDING TO STATISTICAL ANALYSIS” = Rumor has it.
“A STATISTICALLY-ORIENTED PROJECTION OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THESE FINDINGS” = A wild guess.
“IT IS HOPED THAT THIS STUDY WILL STIMULATE FURTHER INVESTIGATION IN THIS FIELD” = I quit!