With the healthcare industry expected to grow as baby boomers age, colleges and universities throughout the country have been adding degree programs intended to train students for healthcare careers that come available. Students who participate in these programs might benefit through an understanding of medical terminology. In some instances, medical terminology courses are a requirement of the new degree programs.

Terminology courses provide students with an understanding of the language they’re likely to use and hear in the healthcare industry. This specialized language includes root words with suffixes and prefixes attached – cardiovascular, cardiogram, and cardiology, for instance. It also includes eponyms – illnesses, exams, parts of the anatomy and more that are often named for people.

A college in Kentucky and a Utah-based institution, which offers online education programs, are among the institutions launching new healthcare programs. For the fall 2010 semester, the Kentucky college began offering an associate degree in medical coding and, through a partnership with another institution in the same state, plans for the fall of 2011 to provide those students opportunities to pursue Doctor of Pharmacy degrees with them. Recently, a health care education company has introduced a new pharmacy technician program and offers medical coding programs as well. Read the rest of this entry »