Medical Spanish

1. Import into Anki

Getting your deck into Anki takes about a minute. Your download link is in the receipt email from Lemon Squeezy, the payment service we use. It usually arrives within a few minutes.

Deck files are large, 130 MB or more depending on the deck, so use Wi-Fi when you download on a phone or tablet.

Another way: import the deck on a computer first, then sync it to your phone with a free AnkiWeb account. Your phone still needs the Anki app: AnkiDroid on Android or AnkiMobile on iPhone and iPad. The first sync can take a while because of the audio, so wait for it to finish.

Medical Spanish by Eidetic appears in your deck list with four sub-decks: Foundation, Clinical Core, Communication and Specialties. Foundation is active, so you can study straight away. The other three, about 2,350 cards between them, are suspended until you switch them on.

2. Recommended settings

Anki's defaults work, but these adjustments will give you better results with this deck:

• New cards per day: 5-10. Clinical Spanish rewards a slow start. A word you only half remember is not much use at the bedside.
• Maximum reviews per day: 200. The default of 200 is fine. If your daily reviews regularly exceed 150, reduce new cards for a few days.
• Learning steps: 1m 10m. Anki's default. Leave it.

To change these: click the gear icon next to the deck name, then "Options."

3. How the three card types work

The phrase ¿Dónde le duele?, 'Where does it hurt?', becomes three cards. You read the Spanish and give the English (Recognition). You read the English and give the Spanish (Production). You complete a clinical sentence that has a word missing (Cloze).

The deck holds 1,002 entries, which become 3,006 cards. Each entry has a pronunciation guide and an example sentence from a clinical setting, and many carry a cultural note. The Register field marks whether a word is neutral, clinical or formal, and many entries carry a dialect variants note. The deck uses clinical Spanish as it is spoken in the US and Latin America, and does not include Castilian-specific terms.

Feeling overwhelmed? Suspend the Production cards for the first week. Focus on Recognition and Cloze. Add Production back once your daily reviews feel manageable. To suspend: select cards in the browser, right-click, "Toggle Suspend."

4. Where to start

The deck has 25 medical themes in four sub-decks. Foundation is active when you import. The other three begin suspended, and you switch them on as your work needs them: select a sub-deck's cards in the Anki browser and use Toggle Suspend, as described in section 3. The Quick Start PDF explains it too.

• Foundation (about 650 cards, active). Medical Basics, Body Parts & Anatomy, Symptoms & Chief Complaints, and Insurance & Registration.
• Clinical Core (about 910 cards). History Taking, Physical Exam, Diseases & Common Conditions, Medications & Pharmacy, Procedures & Informed Consent, and Emergency Triage. Open Emergency Triage early if you work in the ER or urgent care.
• Communication (about 500 cards). Discharge & Follow-up, Patient Comfort & Bad News, Cultural Sensitivity, Lab & Imaging, and Nutrition & Lifestyle.
• Specialties (about 945 cards). Pediatrics, OB/GYN, Mental Health, Dental, Orthopedics & Injuries, Cardiology, Endocrine & Diabetes, Surgery Pre & Post Op, Substance Use & Addiction, and Geriatrics & Home Care. Switch on only the specialties you practice in.

What the notes catch

The cultural notes are where this deck does its most useful work. Four real entries show the kind of thing they flag.

• dolor. 'Pain.' The note says pain scales from 1 to 10 may be unfamiliar to some patients, and suggests asking whether the pain is mild, moderate or severe.
• fiebre. 'Fever.' The note says Latin America uses Celsius, so a US provider saying 102 degrees will confuse patients. The sentence uses treinta y nueve grados.
• mareo. 'Dizziness.' The note says it is ambiguous: it can mean vertigo, lightheadedness or even motion sickness, so always clarify with follow-up questions.
• pastilla. 'Pill; tablet', in Clinical Core. A variants note says that in some Caribbean countries píldora is used more than pastilla, and in Puerto Rico patients may say la pílula.

Patterns from the clinic

Clinical visits follow a predictable order, and the Spanish that goes with them does too. Our medical Spanish guide describes these patterns. Look for them in the cards.

• Say what you are about to do. 'Voy a...' and then the action: 'Voy a tomarle la presión', 'Voy a examinar su abdomen'.
• Use usted. In clinical settings, default to usted unless the patient invites you to use tú. The deck's own example sentences use le, the formal form.
• Ask how the pain feels. '¿Es un dolor que aprieta, que quema o que punza?' Pain quality words are some of the most useful in emergency medicine.

Formal word, patient word

Clinical Spanish has a textbook word and a word patients actually use. Our medical Spanish guide gives these pairs. Learn both.

• Fever. fiebre is the formal word and calentura is the colloquial one. Both are in the deck.
• Nausea. náuseas is formal. A patient may say asco.
• Blood pressure. presión arterial is formal. Patients say la presión.
• Heart rate. frecuencia cardíaca is formal. Patients say el pulso.

Culture at the bedside

Language is one part of a clinical conversation. Our medical Spanish guide points to three habits that shape the rest.

• Family often takes part. In many Latin American cultures, health decisions involve the family. Rather than treating that as interference, build it into the visit: '¿Quiere que su familia esté presente?'
• Pain is described in pictures. Patients may say 'se me encaja' (it stabs into me), 'me quema' (it burns me) or 'me jala' (it pulls me). These do not map neatly onto a 1-to-10 scale.
• Discharge needs care. Our guide says discharge instructions need particular care, because patients follow them at home without a clinician in the room. Clear medication wording in the patient's language helps.

Questions from clinicians

Short answers from our medical Spanish guide.

• Do I need to be fluent? No. Clinical conversations follow predictable patterns. A useful starting point, our guide says, is vocabulary for greetings, history-taking, examination instructions, and discharge explanations. Fluency helps, but structured competence is what keeps patients safe.
• Will it work with patients from different countries? Core clinical vocabulary is shared across most Spanish-speaking populations. The differences are mostly in colloquial words for symptoms and body parts.
• Why does pronunciation matter so much? It affects patient trust and comprehension. Hearing the word first, as the audio lets you, builds the right sound from the start.

Pacing the clinical Spanish

At 5 to 10 new cards a day, a month brings 150 to 300 new cards, which is 50 to 100 new entries because each entry makes three cards. Foundation holds about 650 cards, so expect roughly 65 to 130 days of new cards there. If you are preparing for a rotation, raise the daily number in Options when your reviews allow it, and keep the later sub-decks suspended until you need them.

Practice and reading, clinical

Nothing below needs a purchase.

• Free browser preview. Twenty clinical Spanish cards with audio, in the browser.
• Medical Spanish Vocabulary for Doctors and Nurses. Our page on this deck and who it suits.
• Medical Spanish for Healthcare Professionals. Clinical phrases, vocabulary and cultural context.
• Medical Language Decks. The medical decks in the other three languages.

The "Again" button is your friend

When Anki shows you a card and you don't know the answer, hit Again. Not "Hard." Not "Good." Again.

Spaced repetition works best when you're honest about what you don't know. Cards you mark "Again" come back sooner. Cards you know well space out further. The algorithm adjusts to you. Trust it.

Audio on every card

Every word card has professional audio. On desktop, audio plays automatically when the card appears. On mobile, tap the speaker icon.

Every entry has audio in two voices, one male and one female, and a pronunciation guide. After you hear a card, say it out loud. In a consultation you will be speaking these words, not reading them, and the guide helps you check what you heard.

Lifetime updates

Your purchase includes free updates for the life of the product. When we add new cards, fix audio, or improve translations, you can re-download the latest version from Lemon Squeezy at no extra cost.

When we release a new version, it appears on your original Lemon Squeezy download link; download it again to get it.

Need help?

Reply to any Eidetic email or reach out at hello@eidetic.cards. We read everything and respond fast.