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Medicine vocabulary · Treatments and Procedures

Follow-up

Meaning in medicine, with examples

/ˈfɑːloʊ ʌp/nounCore term

In medicine, follow-up means: A later appointment or check to see how a patient is doing after treatment, a test result or a hospital stay.

In Turkish: kontrol, takip, kontrol muayenesi

How it is used

Doctors arrange, book or plan follow-up and write a follow-up plan in discharge letters. As a verb it is two words without a hyphen: 'We'll follow you up in clinic.' In research, patients may be 'lost to follow-up'.

Example sentences

  1. We'll book a follow-up appointment in six weeks to check the scar.

  2. Follow-up: repeat bloods in one week and review in clinic.

Common collocations

  • follow-up appointment
  • arrange follow-up
  • follow-up plan
  • lost to follow-up
  • follow-up scan
  • dischargeTo officially let a patient leave hospital or a clinic's care because they no longer need it there. As a noun it can also mean fluid that comes out of the body.
  • outpatientA patient who visits a hospital or clinic for an appointment, test or treatment without staying overnight; also used as an adjective for this kind of care.
  • referralThe act of sending a patient to another doctor, specialist team or service for an opinion, tests or treatment; also the letter or request that does this.
  • treatmentThe care, medicine, surgery or other help given to a patient to cure an illness, control it or ease its symptoms.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Treatments and Procedures

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.