Okuzeka
Medicine vocabulary · Patient Communication

Informed consent

Meaning in medicine, with examples

nounCommon term

In medicine, informed consent means: A patient's agreement to a treatment or procedure, given after the doctor has explained what it involves, its benefits, its risks and the alternatives.

In Turkish: aydınlatılmış onam, bilgilendirilmiş onam

How it is used

Needed before surgery, many procedures and research. Doctors obtain, take or get consent, and the patient signs a consent form. Consent can be written, verbal or implied, and the patient must have the capacity to give it.

Example sentences

  1. Have you got informed consent for the endoscopy yet?

  2. The surgeon explained the risks of bleeding and infection before taking informed consent.

Common collocations

  • obtain informed consent
  • consent form
  • sign the consent form
  • verbal consent
  • capacity to consent
  • surgeryTreatment in which a doctor cuts into the body to repair, remove or replace something; also the medical specialty that does this.
  • confidentialityThe duty of doctors and other staff to keep information about patients private and to share it only when this is allowed or necessary.
  • lay termsEveryday words that people without medical training understand, used instead of technical vocabulary when talking to patients.
  • complicationA new problem that develops because of an illness or a treatment, making the situation more serious or harder to manage.

This word in other fields

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

More terms: Patient Communication

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