EN PL
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Redefining terminology for medical eponyms
 
More details
Hide details
1
University of Central Florida College of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, United States
 
2
Department of the History of Medicine and Ethics, Erciyes University School of Medicine, Turkey
 
3
University of Florida, Division of General Internal Medicine, United States
 
 
Submission date: 2020-05-01
 
 
Acceptance date: 2020-05-08
 
 
Online publication date: 2020-06-29
 
 
Publication date: 2020-06-29
 
 
Reumatologia 2020;58(3):187-188
 
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
There are those who support and others who refute the use of medical eponyms. Clarified are the use of the terms eponyms and medical eponyms. We proposed the redesign of a more specific definition for a medical eponym. Therefore, a medical eponym in clinical medicine is defined as a honorific term bestowed to an individual who identified or discovered, a disease, sign, symptom, syndrome, test, finding, anatomical part, or designed a device, procedure, view, treatment, classification, prediction rule, principle, or algorithm. Thus medical eponyms include those aspects which involve patient care or applications of care. Further discussed and clarified are misconceptions regarding the use of medical eponyms, distinguishing features of other types of “onyms”, and supporting and opposing views regarding their retention and disbarment. Recognized is the importance that medical eponyms be carefully studied using an evidence-based approach before they are abandoned.
 
REFERENCES (10)
1.
Nieradko-Iwanicka B. National eponyms in medicine. Reumatologia 2020; 58: 56-57, DOI: 10.5114/reum.2020.93175.
 
2.
[No author listed]. Classification and nomenclature of morphological defects. Lancet 1975; 305: 513, DOI: 10.1016/s0140-6736(75)92847-0.
 
3.
Fukuda K, Wang R, Vallat B. Naming diseases: first do no harm. Science 2015; 348: 643, DOI: 10.1126/science.348.6235.643.
 
4.
[No author listed]. WHO best practices for naming of new human infectious diseases. May 2015. Retrieved: https://www.who.int/topics/inf... (accessed: April 29, 2020).
 
5.
Orbey E. Trump’s “Chinese virus” and what’s at stake in the Coronavirus’s name. The New Yorker. March 25, 2020. Retrieved: https://www.newyorker.com/cult... (accessed: April 30, 2020).
 
6.
Strous RD, Edelman MC. Eponyms and the Nazi era: time to remember and time for change. Isr Med Assoc J 2007; 9: 207-214, PMID: 17402342.
 
7.
Rosenberg M. Demonyms: the names of nationalities. ThoughtCo, Feb. 11, 2020. Retrieved: thoughtco.com/the-names-of-nationalities-4088817 (accessed: April 30, 2020).
 
8.
Aronson JK. Medical eponyms: taxonomies, natural history, and the evidence. BMJ 2014; 349: g7586, DOI: 10.1136/bmj.g7586.
 
9.
Woywodt A, Matteson E. Should eponyms be abandoned? Yes. BMJ 2007; 335: 424, DOI: 10.1136/bmj.39308.342639.AD.
 
10.
Whitworth JA. Should eponyms be abandoned? No. BMJ 2007; 335: 425, DOI: 10.1136/bmj.39308.380567.AD.
 
Copyright: © Narodowy Instytut Geriatrii, Reumatologii i Rehabilitacji w Warszawie. This is an Open Access journal, all articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license.
eISSN:2084-9834
ISSN:0034-6233
Journals System - logo
Scroll to top