Learning the language of medicine: from student to fluent physician

KevinMD March 2, 2025
Paige Kalika, DO

Medicine is a language.

Medicine is many things: an art, a science, a vocation, and a calling. A good way to make a difference, a hard way to make a living. But medicine is also a language.

We learn it the way we learn any language: from the ground up. We start with the fundamentals, the vocabulary of medicine—anatomy, biochemistry, physiology—and work our way up to the sentence level: pharmacology, immunology, neuroscience. With that in place, we can start piecing the sentences together to make paragraphs: fundamentals of pediatrics, OB/GYN, cardiology.

Now that we’re beginning to become conversational in our new language, it’s time for the time-tested best way to learn a language quickly: total immersion! Out of the classroom...

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