Acronym

When I joined the Mississippi Hospital Association almost six years ago, it was my first job in the association world and my first job in health care. (Talk about acronym overload.) I carried around a little cheat sheet for a while to remind me what HCFA, HIPAA, ICD-9-CM, QIO and a slew of other acronyms meant. It seemed that every time I got one down pat they would spring another one on me.

I'm proud to report that today, in my company, I have become something of an acronym aficionado. It's like a party trick almost. Give me an acronym - any acronym - in the health care field. Give me one word. I can generally figure out the rest. (Except for ICD-9-CM...that one really threw me.)

Now I have one for you to sharpen your acronym skills.

AAAAA.

Give up?

It's the American Association Against Acronym Abuse, of course! ;)

Did you know that the widespread use of acronyms is a relatively new wordly way? The first printed use of the word "acronym" was only in 1943. (And in linguistic circles, there is much contention about lunking all acronyms together. The only true acronyms, some say, sound like a word - like radar, laser, scuba, NATO, etc. If the letters are pronounced individually, rather than like a word, it is an initialism...not an acronym. Think FBI, CIA, HTML.)

Here are some more useful acronym resources to bookmark (in addition to this Acronym blog, of course):
- Acronym Finder
- The Internet Acronym Server
- Acronym Search (You can also add your own acronyms here.)
- The Canonical Abbreviation/Acronym List
- Acronym Guide