No Case Without a Problem

Susanne Reichelt

No Case Without a Problem: A Terminological Work on the Tutor Guide of the Indiana University School of Medicine - Northwest

ISBN 978-3-86821-118-4, 623 S., 7 Abb., € 40,00 (CD-ROM, 2009)

(Lighthouse Unlimited, Bd. 141)

Inspired by its scientific partnership with the Indiana University School of Medicine – Northwest in Gary, launched a couple of years ago, the Seminar für Übersetzen und Dolmetschen of the University of Heidelberg implemented a new course, called Teaching Medical Terminology (TMT). The course’s objective is to understand the role of medical terminology in medical texts. Therefore, students are provided with medical texts drawn from IUSM casebooks, which include a large number of medical terms to examine. This thesis focuses on a comprehensive bilingual database (287 entries) in the field of biochemistry and molecular biology, drawn from the Step 1 Tutor Guide of the IUSM – Northwest. This first casebook is the learning and teaching material used for medical education at the IUSM – Northwest, and it is part of a comprehensive educational method, called problem-based learning (PBL), which focuses on the individual and self-directed learning of students. The English-German database fulfils all the requirements of a translator-oriented database and can thus constitute a useful tool for the translation of medical texts in general and during the TMT course in particular. Moreover, this database can also aid students at the IUSM – Northwest in acquiring medical terminology. In addition to the database, the thesis provides an introduction to the teaching and learning approach of PBL and its implementation at the IUSM – Northwest before concentrating on the pivotal role of casebooks in the context of PBL and the Case Method as the underlying principle of casebooks. Subsequently, the importance of medical terminology in medicine and medical publications and its role for practitioners, experts and students is analyzed. The final part of this thesis focuses on the evaluation of the text corpus and references used for the bilingual database.