Arab Board Family Medicine Final Written key terms

The sustained relationship between a patient and a clinician or care team over time, providing accumulated knowledge of the person's history, values and context, and linked to better preventive care, adherence and satisfaction.

The principle that family medicine addresses the full range of physical, psychological and social problems in a person, regardless of age, sex or organ system, rather than limiting practice to a defined set of conditions.

A system in which the primary care physician acts as the first point of contact and authorises access to specialists and secondary services, aiming to coordinate care and control unnecessary referral.

A framework holding that illness and health are determined by interacting biological, psychological and social factors, so assessment and management consider all three rather than disease alone.

An approach that explores the patient's illness experience, understands the whole person, agrees on management and enhances the doctor-patient relationship, rather than focusing only on the disease.

A collaborative process in which clinician and patient exchange information about options, benefits and harms, and the patient's values, then jointly agree on a management plan.

A patient's voluntary agreement to an investigation or treatment after receiving adequate information about its nature, purpose, risks, alternatives and consequences, given by a person with capacity.

A person's ability to understand, retain and weigh relevant information and communicate a decision at the time it is required; it is decision-specific and presumed present unless shown otherwise.

The professional duty to protect patient information from unauthorised disclosure, subject to defined limits such as risk of serious harm, legal requirement or the patient's consent.

The probability that a specified outcome occurs in a given group over a stated period, expressed as a proportion or percentage, and used to judge the real-world impact of a risk factor or treatment.

The ratio of the risk of an outcome in an exposed or treated group to the risk in an unexposed or control group; it describes strength of association but not the size of benefit to an individual.

The number of patients who must receive an intervention for one additional patient to benefit, calculated as the reciprocal of the absolute risk reduction over a defined period.

The proportion of people who truly have a condition and are correctly identified by a test as positive; a highly sensitive test is useful for ruling out disease when negative.

The proportion of people who do not have a condition and are correctly identified by a test as negative; a highly specific test is useful for confirming disease when positive.

The probability that a person with a positive test result actually has the condition; it depends on test accuracy and on the prevalence of the condition in the population tested.

An apparent improvement in survival after screening that arises only because diagnosis occurs earlier, lengthening the time a person is known to have disease without postponing death.

The tendency of screening to detect slowly progressive disease disproportionately, making screened cases appear to survive longer than clinically detected cases even if screening confers no true benefit.

The systematic testing of apparently healthy people to identify those with unrecognised disease or risk factors, so that early intervention can improve outcome; it requires a suitable test and effective treatment.

Measures taken before disease develops to reduce its incidence, such as immunisation, smoking cessation support, physical activity promotion and healthy diet advice.

Early detection and prompt treatment of established but asymptomatic disease to halt or slow progression, for example cervical cytology, mammography or blood pressure case-finding.

A validated tool that estimates a person's absolute ten-year probability of a cardiovascular event from factors such as age, sex, smoking, blood pressure, lipids and diabetes, guiding preventive treatment.

A clinical syndrome of heart failure with normal or near-normal left ventricular ejection fraction, usually with diastolic dysfunction and left ventricular hypertrophy, common in older hypertensive patients.

A lung function test measuring how much and how quickly air is exhaled; a reduced post-bronchodilator FEV1/FVC ratio confirms airflow obstruction and supports a diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The extent to which asthma symptoms, reliever use, night waking and activity limitation are minimised and lung function preserved; assessed at each review to guide stepwise adjustment of inhaler therapy.

The correct method of using a metered-dose or dry-powder device, including priming, shaking, coordination of actuation with inhalation and breath-holding; poor technique is a common cause of treatment failure.

A measure of average blood glucose over roughly the preceding two to three months, formed by non-enzymatic glycation of haemoglobin, used for monitoring and diagnosing diabetes; it is unreliable in haemoglobinopathies and pregnancy.

A state of raised blood glucose after a glucose load that falls short of diagnostic thresholds for diabetes, representing a pre-diabetic condition with increased risk of progression and cardiovascular disease.

A clustering of central obesity, raised triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol, raised blood pressure and raised fasting glucose that together markedly increase the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Abnormally low blood glucose, typically below 4 mmol/L, producing autonomic symptoms such as sweating and tremor and, if severe, neuroglycopenic confusion or coma; common in insulin-treated diabetes.

Symptoms or signs such as weight loss, bleeding, dysphagia, anaemia or a mass that, in the context of a common complaint, raise the probability of serious disease and prompt investigation or referral.

An abrupt decline in kidney function over hours to days, shown by a rising serum creatinine or falling urine output, commonly caused by dehydration, sepsis, drugs or obstruction.

A calculated estimate of kidney filtration derived from serum creatinine, age and sex, used to stage chronic kidney disease; it is less reliable at extremes of muscle mass and in acute illness.

A pregnancy-specific disorder of new hypertension after 20 weeks with proteinuria or maternal organ dysfunction, threatening mother and fetus and requiring close monitoring and timely delivery.

A programme of tests offered in pregnancy, including blood group, anaemia, infection and aneuploidy screening and ultrasound, to identify conditions that may benefit from intervention before birth.

Glucose intolerance first recognised during pregnancy, associated with macrosomia, birth trauma and later maternal type 2 diabetes, managed with diet, monitoring and insulin or metformin when needed.

A skill such as sitting, walking or using words that most children achieve by an expected age range; persistent delay in one or more domains warrants assessment and referral.

A standardised plotted reference of weight, length, height and head circumference against age, used to detect faltering growth, obesity or abnormal growth velocity in children.

The use of validated questionnaires such as the PHQ-9 in patients with risk factors or unexplained symptoms to identify probable depression, followed by clinical confirmation rather than diagnosis by score alone.

The expression of psychological distress as physical symptoms that cannot be fully explained by organic disease, often leading to repeated consultation and investigation; managed by regular supportive review.

The concurrent use of multiple medicines, often five or more, which raises the risk of interactions and adverse effects and should prompt regular structured medication review, especially in older people.

The planned, supervised withdrawal of medicines that are no longer beneficial or whose harms outweigh benefits, undertaken with the patient using explicit criteria and monitoring for withdrawal effects.

A state of reduced physiological reserve and increased vulnerability to stressors, identified by unintentional weight loss, exhaustion, weakness, slow walking and low activity, predicting adverse outcomes.

A multidimensional, multidisciplinary evaluation of an older person's medical, functional, psychological and social needs, producing a coordinated care plan that improves outcomes and reduces hospitalisation.

A quality improvement cycle that compares current practice against agreed standards, implements change and re-measures performance, distinct from research because it does not generate generalisable new knowledge.

The framework through which organisations are accountable for continuously improving quality and safeguarding high standards of care, encompassing audit, risk management, education and patient involvement.

A structured, iterative method for testing small changes: plan the change and prediction, carry it out, study the results, then act by adapting, adopting or abandoning before the next cycle.

A hierarchy ranking study designs by susceptibility to bias, from systematic reviews of randomised trials at the top through cohort and case-control studies to expert opinion at the base, guiding appraisal.

An experiment in which participants are randomly allocated to intervention or control, balancing known and unknown confounders so that differences in outcome can be attributed to the intervention.

A range of values within which the true population estimate is likely to lie with a stated probability, usually 95%; its width reflects precision and its position indicates statistical significance.

Holistic care for people with life-limiting illness that relieves pain and other distressing symptoms, addresses psychological, social and spiritual needs, and supports families, regardless of prognosis or stage.

An ongoing discussion in which a person records their values, goals and preferences for future care, and may appoint a substitute decision-maker, so treatment can be guided if they lose capacity.

Switching from one opioid to another, usually because of inadequate analgesia or intolerable adverse effects, using equianalgesic dose conversion and reducing the calculated dose to allow for incomplete cross-tolerance.