RMstudents Technology meets medical education

Most med students use Microsoft Word or OpenOffice.org or some other office suite to complete assignments and SOAP notes at Rush.  Since we often end up writing tons of scientific and medical jargon, a completed document usually ends up with all sorts of red squiggles on it, indicating misspellings.  The problem is that these terms usually aren't misspelled.  Your office suite just doesn't have a valid medical dictionary installed. Luckily, a company called e-MedTools makes a good medical dictionary that's updated annually with the newest terms.

OpenOffice.org users

Users of OpenOffice.org can download the OpenMedSpel extension for free to give them a fully functional medical dictionary.  People who are using Microsoft Word can purchase a copy of MedSpel from e-MedTools.  This will give you the exact same functionality in MS Word.  If you're not too keen on ponying up $20, there's actually a way you can add this feature to your office suite for free.  It just involves a few simple steps.

Microsoft Word 2003 or earlier

First, you need to download the OpenMedSpel dictionary as a zip file.  Unzip the file, and you should be left with "OpenMedSpel 100.dic".  If you're using MS Word 2003 or earlier, then open up MS Word and go to Tools -> Options -> Spelling & Grammar tab.  Click on the "Custom Dictionaries" button and then the "Add" button.  Then navigate to your unzipped dictionary file and select the file "OpenMedSpel 100.dic".  Close the remaining windows.  You will need to close and restart MS Word for the new dictionary to take effect.  You should now be able to write a ton of medical jargon, and it will be spell-checked correctly!

Microsoft Word 2007 (Windows) or 2008 (Mac)

If you're using MS Word 2007 or MS Word 2008 for Mac, hit the Office globe button at the top left, then move the mouse down to "Word options" and click on it.  A new window opens.  In this new window ("Word Options"), on the left menu one needs to click on "Proofing," then find "custom dictionaries" in the middle.  A new window should open.  In this new window ("Custom Dictionaries") click "Add" on the right, and a new window will open.  In this new window ("Add Custom Dictionary") find where you extracted the dictionary file ("OpenMedSpel 100.dic") and select it.  Then click Open.  Click OK twice to close the remaining windows, and then close and restart MS Word for the new dictionary to take effect.  Screenshots can be found at the end of this page.

Firefox and Thunderbird

If you have a similar problem in Firefox or Thunderbird, you can also download extensions to add the OpenMedSpel dictionary to them for free.

Credits

This guide was adapted from Medical Nerds.  The OpenMedSpel dictionary was created by e-MedTools.  It is free software and is licensed under the GPL.  As such, the file we're providing, which is an adaptation that can be added directly to MS Word, is also licensed under the GPL.  Thank you to Usama Ahmad for converting the dictionary file correctly and providing the MS Word 2007 instructions and screenshots.

Screenshots