Data, Information, Results, Discussion, Hypothesis, and Theory

Science starts with ideas. Ideas cannot exist without language, and language is made of words. Language affects what we write, where we put what we write, and what we expect when we read our literature. Unfortunately, few of us ever have been trained in the proper use of our language as it pertains to the reporting of our research activities to our colleagues, either in the written word or when we must present the material to our colleagues. Misuse of certain words pervades our literature, and it seems that it matters not whether the author is a young novice or a seasoned veteran researcher. Further, the misuse of important terms is not confined to the English language, but pervades no matter what the language or even the discipline. Disaster and Emergency Medicine always is multidisciplinary: we cannot practice in a vacuum surrounded only by our medical colleagues. We must arrive at definitions that we all can agree upon, or we have difficulty communicating. Let me start with a few basic definitions.