English <> Spanish glossary of initialisms, acronyms, and abbreviations in medical documents

The doctor-patient linguistic relationship is often complex. The limited time available for each medical visit is the main reason that physicians cut down the length and number of words used in their patient notes. The translator must carry out an exercise of analysis, based on his/her knowledge of the subject area, to be able to decode the doctor's message. This is the main motive of the research study presented here: to contribute to the transmission of patient-targeted medical documents, providing a detailing and (English-Spanish) translation of the most common initialisms, acronyms, and abbreviations within this social services field.