Exploring Medical Language: A Student-Directed Approach

**2026 Textbook and Academic Authors Association (TAA) McGuffey Longevity Award Winner**

Master medical terms on your terms! A combination text/workbook, Exploring Medical Language: A Student-Directed Approach, 12th Edition, provides exercises that make it easy to build an understanding of medical terminology. Organized by body system, medical terms are divided into two categories: 1) Words built from word parts, and 2) Words NOT built from word parts. Fun and engaging exercises help you first learn word parts and then learn how to combine the parts into full medical terms that make sense. The text also comes packaged with paper flashcards. For more practice, you can visit an Evolve companion website with games, activities, flashcards, and practice exams. From well-known educators Danielle LaFleur Brooks, Dale Levinsky, and Myrna LaFleur Brooks, this learning package helps you gain fluency in medical language and communicate clearly in the health care setting.

• NEW! Capstone exercise, Scribe It, helps you draw on what you’ve learned from Exploring Medical Language to transcribe information from a patient encounter
• EXPANDED! Practical Application sections at end of chapters 2-16, called Use Medical Terms in Clinical Statements, enhance review and retention of chapter content
• EXPANDED! Focus on lab findings includes a narrative explanation and identification of terms indicating lab findings
• NEW! Added phonetic spelling for abbreviations spoken as whole words
• NEW! Introduction of the SOAP Note format and associated abbreviations
• ENHANCED! Behavioral health coverage includes narrative introduction
• Systematic presentation of medical terminology provides a foundation of word parts, then builds words by combining the parts
• Extensive review of word parts and terms offers the practice needed to learn medical terminology
• Accessible, interactive exercises and games on the accompanying Evolve website provide extensive opportunities to practice building, hearing, and spelling terms
• Medical Terminology Online (MTO) companion course offers additional practice and interactivity to support comprehension. Sold separately

Danielle has taught medical terminology and medical assisting courses in face-to-face, hybrid, and online formats since 2008. She has led the writing of Basic Medical Language since 1996, utilizing her knowledge of how students learn based on her previous career as a high school English Teacher. She is the co-author of Exploring Medical Language.

Dr. Levinsky is a board-certified family medicine physician. She currently teaches case-based instruction at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson, where she is a Clinical Associate Professor in the department Family and Community Medicine. She also supervises medical students in three clinics dedicated to the care of underserved patients. She is the co-author of Exploring Medical Language.

Myrna was a health science faculty member and division chair with the Maricopa County Community College for 27 years. During that time she taught medical terminology and developed the curriculum for seven other health occupation education programs. She is also the co-author of Exploring Medical Language.