UPDATED GUIDANCE ON USE OF ABBREVIATIONS IN MEDICAL CERTIFICATES OF CAUSE OF DEATH
Following the release of a CMO letter from the Scottish Government, the guidance for doctors completing Medical Certificates of the Cause of Death (MCCD) and its quality assurance regarding the use of abbreviations has been changed. The list of abbreviations can be found in the updated CMO guidance at Appendix 4 - please click here to view the document.
Our educational resources for doctors on completion of the MCCD on the Support Around Death website have been amended accordingly to reflect this change.
The reasons for using abbreviations are:
- Those terms which are well known by clinicians and the public and do not cause confusion
- Those with characters more than that can be accommodated on the electronic MCCD form and where it is an accepted abbreviation in the WHO ICD-11 classification
Accepted abbreviations are:
- HIV - human immunodeficiency virus infection
- AIDS - acquired immune deficiency syndrome
- COVID 19 Disease or SARS-CoV-2- Coronavirus disease or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2
- CREST - calcinosis, Raynaud phenomenon, oesophageal dysmotility, sclerodactyly, and telangiectasia syndrome
- CADASIL - cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy syndrome
- CARASIL - cerebral autosomal recessive arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy syndrome
- SCID - severe combined immunodeficiency
- IgG – Immunoglobulin G
- IgA - Immunoglobulin A
- IgM - Immunoglobulin M