Nonclinical

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Describing factors or activities that do not occur in a clinical environment, this term can apply to research that lacks patient engagement
2. Pertaining to settings or operations outside of healthcare practice, it often relates to theoretical work that avoids hands-on treatment
3. Relating to actions or conditions that occur outside direct patient care or hospital treatment

Etymology: "Nonclinical" is a plain formation: the prefix "non-" attached to "clinical," meaning not relating to clinical practice or the care of patients. The core of the word is "clinical," which traces back through Latin "clinicus" and Greek "klīnikos," from "klinē," a bed, the same root that gives "recline" and "incline." A clinical physician was originally one who treated people confined to bed, and the medical sense has stayed close to that bedside origin. The adjective "clinical" passed into English through French "clinique," which took it from Late Latin, and it followed the path of other Greek-derived medical terms that entered English in the modern period. The suffix "-al," meaning "relating to," was added on the English side, and "non-" is an English prefix of Latin origin meaning "not."

Synonyms: nonmedical, theoretical, abstract, academic, experimental

Antonyms: clinical, practical, applied, real, hands-on