UK medicine for US medical students: drug names, units and terms

WardRun is written in UK English and follows UK practice. The medicine is the same medicine, but a handful of names, units and job titles differ. Learn these and every question reads as easily as one written in the US.

Drug names

• Paracetamol is acetaminophen.
• Adrenaline is epinephrine, and noradrenaline is norepinephrine.
• Salbutamol is albuterol.
• Glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) is nitroglycerin.
• Co-amoxiclav is amoxicillin-clavulanate.
• Pethidine is meperidine, and ciclosporin is cyclosporine.

Lab units

UK labs report in SI units. Three conversions cover most questions:

• Glucose: multiply mmol/L by 18 to get mg/dL. A glucose of 7 mmol/L is about 126 mg/dL.
• Creatinine: divide micromol/L by 88.4 to get mg/dL. A creatinine of 88 micromol/L is about 1 mg/dL.
• Haemoglobin: divide g/L by 10 to get g/dL. A haemoglobin of 120 g/L is 12 g/dL.

Hospital terms

• A&E is the emergency department, and a GP is a family or primary care physician.
• A consultant is an attending, and a registrar is a senior resident.
• An FY1 is a first-year doctor after graduation, close to a US intern.

What WardRun is for, and what it is not

Since January 2022 USMLE Step 1 has been reported pass or fail, while Step 2 CK keeps a three-digit score. WardRun is not a USMLE bank, and you should use one built for Step 1 or Step 2 CK for that. WardRun is the daily habit that sits alongside it: a new run of clinical questions every day, the key point after every answer, and a ranking against everyone who played.

New to WardRun? Read how the daily game works, or try ten questions.

A new set every day

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