The Unified Medical Dictionary is now available on the Internet at www.emro.who.int/umd/

What is the UMD?

The Unified Medical Dictionary (UMD) is a Multilingual Medical Dictionary, which was originally compiled in the late 1960s and early 1970s on response to a recommendation of the Arab Medical Union. Subsequently, two further editions were issued, the last of which (UMD third edition, 1983) included French terms.

The Council of Arab Health Ministers then asked WHO/EMRO to update the previous edition. An editorial committee of experts was set up with Dr M.H. Khayat as the rapporteur to further verify and enrich the Unified Medical Dictionary on a regular basis. In the late 1980s Dr Khayat took the initiative to prepare a fourth comprehensive edition covering the widest range possible of medical terminology to be made available for users.

Dr Khayat coordinated the work with a selected team of experts from almost all the Arab countries.   The team made use of feedback, comments and information received from a long list of experts and professionals from all over the Arab world.

Special account was taken of the medical terms approved by the Arab Academies in Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad and Amman. The Committee also made sure that the Arabic terms were selected carefully in accordance with a very strict, clear, simplified and user-friendly methodology.

An electronic version of this edition is available on CD-ROM in a Windows environment, and comprises about 150 000 terms.

The computerized version enabled the UMD team to isolate specialized sub-dictionaries from the mother UMD easily. As a result, great progress has been achieved in the production of the hardcopy version of the Unified Medical Dictionary (UMD) with UMD-driven sub-dictionaries: the Unified Dentistry Dictionary (UDD), Unified Pharmacy Dictionary (UPD), Unified Anatomy Dictionary (UAD) and Unified Medical Dictionary, Pocket version (UMDP).

French, German and Spanish terms are being added to form a multilingual collection in Arabic, French, German and Spanish.

What is the Advanced Search on the Internet?

Advanced Search gives the user more precise options. If we call the set of characters that the user has to write in the Search Box "search expression", then:

1. The user can look for a search expression as a complete term. Thus a search for "eye" results in one term : eye ??? .

2. The user can look for a search expression as a word in a term. Thus a search for "eye" results in all the terms that include "eye".

3. The user can look for a search expression as part of any term that contains the search expression, whatever the characters precede it "truncation at the beginning" or whatever the characters that follow it "truncation at the end".

4. The user can restrict a search to one or several sub-dictionaries.

5. The user can restrict a search to preferred terms or expand it to include terms, explanations and notes.

Further information is obtainable from the WHO Arabic Programme (WAP) and Terminology Unit on request, at the following address:

World Health Organization

Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean

P.O. Box 7608 Nasr City

Cairo 11371 Egypt

E-mail: sarak@emro.who.int

Summary of UMD History

Who were the main contributors to the UMD?

The main contributors to the UMD were:

• Council of Arab Health Ministers

• WHO

• Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALESCO)

Who is the focal point for the UMD? How can I get a copy? 

Simply by writing, faxing or e-mailing to Dr M H Khayat, Senior Policy Adviser

World Health Organization

Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean

P.O. 7608 Nasr City

Cairo 11371 Egypt

Tel. 002 02 6702535

Fax. 002 02 6702492

002 02 6702494

khayat@emro.who.int