Technical Viewpoint in Medical Education Tortured phrases dilute the specificity of medical jargon

The effectiveness of technical communication among medical peers is, to a great extent, determined by the accuracy of the jargon that is used, so as to avoid errors in interpretations or ambiguity in the message. “Tortured phrases”, a fairly new phenomenon, employ ambiguous language to provide odd or synonymous meanings that substitute for established jargon or standard English phrases. This technical viewpoint highlights this risk using several examples from the recent medical literature. This might represent a strategy to avoid the detection of plagiarism, it might reflect a poor command of English grammar, or it might reflect the use of a third-party service during the development of the paper. Much wider debate is still needed, as is the discovery of more examples to appreciate if there are trends underlying this phenomenon, and to what extent they may be distorting the medical literature. Take-home message: “Tortured phrases” in the medical literature can introduce ambiguities to readers where standard jargon actually exists.

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