Definitions: M
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Malignant - relating to cancer cells that are invasive and tend to metastasize.
Managed Care - there is currently no standard definition of managed care, but it can best be described as a combination of insurance and a health care delivery system. The basic goal of managed care is to coordinate all health care services received to maximize benefits and minimize costs. Managed care plans use their own network of health care providers and a system of prior approval from a primary care doctor in order to achieve this goal. Providers include: specialists, hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, therapists, and home health care agencies.
Mania - a mood characterized by an unstable expansive emotional state; extreme excitement; excessive elation; hyperactivity; agitation; over-talkativeness; flight of ideas; fleeting attention; and sometimes violent, destructive, and self-destructive behavior, delusions, or hallucinations.
Manic Depression - (see bipolar disorder)
Manic Depressive Disorder - (see bipolar disorder)
Massage - the rubbing or kneading of parts of the body especially to aid circulation, relax the muscles, or provide stimulation.
Medicaid - a jointly funded medical financial Federal-State health insurance assistance program, offering benefits to individuals with limited financial resources, the disabled, and the elderly. There are income eligibility criteria which must be met to qualify for Medicaid. The person must have exhausted nearly all assets to participate in this program. Medicaid can reimburse nursing facilities for the long-term care of qualifying seniors, and in some states, Medicaid pays for assisted living care through Medicaid waivers.
Medical - of, relating to, or characterizing the study or practice of medicine.
Medical Director - a staff medical director assumes overall responsibility for the formulation and implementation of all policies related to medical care. The medical director also coordinates with an individual's personal physician to ensure that the facility delivers the care that is prescribed. In some instances, the medical director may be a resident'sprimary physician.
Medical Social Workers - assist patients and their family members with the social and emotional concerns related to a patient's condition. Medical Social Workers sometimes also serve as case managers when a patient's condition is so complex that it requires a variety of health and social services.
Medicare - nationwide medical insurance program administered by the Social Security Administration for individuals 65 and over and certain disabled people, regardless of income. Provides for hospital and nursing facility care (Part A) and physician services, therapies, and home health care (Part B).
Medicate - to give medication.
Medication - (also meds) a drug or other substance that is used as a medicine.
Medications Management - formalized procedure with a written set of rules for the management of self-administered medicine, as in an assisted living setting. A program may include management of the timing and dosage for residents, and could include coordination with a resident's personal physician. The resident must take the medication him or herself. For instance, the facility can remind the resident that she needs to give herself the medicine injection, but the facility cannot perform the actual injection itself.
Medicine - any drug or remedy; the diagnosis and treatment of disease and the maintenance of health; the treatment of disease by non-surgical means.
Medigap Insurance - private health insurance policies that supplement Medicare coverage, covering health care costs above those covered by Medicare Part A or Part B. Does not provide benefits for long term care, covering primarily hospital and doctor bills.
Memory - the ability to recall events, experiences, information, and skills.
Menstrual - of or relating to menstruation.
Menstruation - the discharge of blood and tissue or the process itself from the uterus at the end of a menstrual cycle, occurring at approximately 4 week intervals, approximately 2 weeks after ovulation.
Mental - having to do with the mind.
Mental Retardation - (MR) is characterized by sub-average cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more behaviors with onset before the age of 18. Once focused almost entirely on cognition, the definition now includes both a component relating to mental functioning and one relating to the individual's functional skills in their environment.
Metabolism - the sum of the physical and chemical processes by which living organized substances are built up and maintained (anabolism), and by which large molecules are broken down into smaller molecules to make energy available to the organism (catabolism). Essentially these processes are concerned with the disposition of the nutrients absorbed into the blood following digestion.
Metastasis - the spread of disease from one part of the body to another, as when cancer cells appear in parts of the body remote from the site of the primary tumor.
Mineral - any inorganic matter.
Mobility - to accomplish the act of moving.
Molecule - the smallest amount of a substance which can exist alone; a collection of atoms, specifically a chemical combination of two or more atoms forming a specific chemical substance.
Monitor - to check constantly.
Mood - a state of mind or emotion.
Mourning - the public expression of bereavement; it may include funerals and other rituals, special clothing, and symbolic gestures.
Multi-Infarct Dementia - (see vascular dementia)
Multi-System - (also multisystem) having to do with more than one group of dependent tissues.
Multiple Sclerosis - (MS) is an autoimmune condition in which the immune system attacks the central nervous system (CNS). It may cause numerous physical and mental symptoms, and often progresses to physical and cognitive disability. Disease onset usually occurs in young adults, and it is more common in women.
Muscle - an organ that, by cellular contraction, produces the movements of life. The two varieties of muscle structure are striated, which includes all the muscles in which contraction is voluntary and the heart muscle (in which contraction is involuntary), and unstriated, smooth, or organic, which includes all the involuntary muscles (except the heart), such as the muscular layer of the intestines, bladder, and blood vessels.
These definitions are from sources deemed reliable but you should independently verify their accuracy.
If you click a link, you can go back by clicking your browser's back button or by pressing Alt, left arrow.
See a correction? Want us to add a definition? Tell us here.
Sources:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/
http://www.webmd.com/
