Medical and Technical Vocabulary
Core concepts
Court reporters encounter medical testimony in personal-injury, malpractice, and workers' compensation cases. Know anatomical terms (cervical, thoracic, lumbar, proximal, distal, medial, lateral), common conditions (herniation, radiculopathy, contusion, fracture, sprain vs. strain), procedures (MRI, CT, EMG, arthroscopy, laminectomy, fusion), and medications with tricky spellings (acetaminophen, ibuprofen, oxycodone, gabapentin). Understand degrees of injury and prognosis terminology. Technical vocabulary includes engineering, finance, and software terms that vary by case.
Common traps
- Confusing sprain (ligament) with strain (muscle/tendon).
- Misspelling drug names or confusing sound-alikes.
- Mixing proximal/distal (toward/away from the body) and medial/lateral.
- Mishearing abbreviations spoken as words (e.g., "EMG" vs. "EEG").
Rule of thumb
Maintain a personal medical dictionary and verify unfamiliar terms against a reliable source before certifying. When a term is inaudible, mark it clearly rather than guessing.