Glossary
Family Medicine Physician Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential family medicine physician terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key family medicine physician vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in family medicine physician training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- A1C
- Blood test for diabetes control.
- Board certification
- Specialty credential.
- Care coordination
- Organizing care across providers.
- Chronic disease
- Long-term illness.
- Hypertension
- High blood pressure.
- Medical home
- Coordinated primary care model.
- PCP
- Primary care physician.
- Population health
- Health of a patient group.
- Preventive care
- Screenings and vaccines.
- Primary care
- First-contact, ongoing care.
- Referral
- Sending to a specialist.
- Screening
- Testing for hidden disease.
- Patient and doctor decide together.
- Telehealth
- Video visits.
- Well-child visit
- Routine pediatric checkup.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Family Medicine Physician practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Family Medicine Physician training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.