Plain-English explanations of the technical terms and legislation used in this document.
- Adherence
- How closely a patient follows the agreed treatment, including taking the right dose at the right time.
- Adverse effect
- An unwanted or harmful reaction caused by a medicine.
- Baseline
- A patient's starting measurement, such as their weight before treatment, used to judge later change.
- Body mass index (BMI)
- A measure of weight in relation to height (weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared) used to classify a healthy weight, overweight or obesity.
- Care Quality Commission (CQC)
- The independent regulator of health and social care services in England.
- Clinically meaningful response
- A pre-set amount of weight loss within a set time that shows the medicine is working well enough to justify continuing it.
- Contemporaneous
- Written down at the time of, or very soon after, the event being recorded.
- Contraindication
- A specific situation or condition in which a medicine should not be used because it could cause harm.
- Data Protection Act 2018
- The UK law that, alongside the UK General Data Protection Regulation, governs how personal information must be handled.
- DNA (did not attend)
- A record that a patient missed a booked appointment without attending or cancelling.
- General Medical Council (GMC)
- The body that registers doctors in the UK and sets the standards they must follow.
- General practitioner (GP)
- A doctor who provides general medical care in the community and is usually a patient's main, ongoing doctor.
- GLP-1 receptor agonist
- A type of injectable medicine (for example semaglutide) used to support weight loss alongside diet and activity.
- Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014
- The regulations setting out the fundamental standards that providers of regulated care must meet.
- Human Medicines Regulations 2012
- The main UK law governing how medicines are licensed, supplied and prescribed.
- Maintenance phase
- The stage of treatment when a patient stays on a steady dose after the dose has been built up.
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)
- The body that produces evidence-based guidance on treatments and care for use across health services in England.
- Near miss
- An event that could have caused harm but did not, by chance or because it was caught in time.
- Pancreatitis
- Inflammation of the pancreas, which can cause severe abdominal pain and may be serious.
- Percentage weight change
- How much a patient's weight has gone up or down, shown as a percentage of their starting weight.
- Pharmacotherapy
- The treatment of a condition using medicines.
- Prescriber
- A healthcare professional legally allowed to decide on and authorise a patient's medicines.
- Reconciliation (of supply)
- Checking the amount of medicine a patient has received against the amount they should have used, to spot under-use, over-use or misuse.
- Registered Manager
- The person registered with the regulator as responsible for the day-to-day running of a service.
- Regulated activity
- A type of care or treatment the law requires a provider to register with the regulator to deliver.
- Safeguarding
- Protecting people's health, wellbeing and rights and keeping them safe from abuse, harm or neglect.
- Semaglutide
- A GLP-1 receptor agonist medicine used to help manage overweight and obesity.
- Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)
- A written, step-by-step instruction setting out how a particular task must be carried out consistently and safely.
- Stopping rule
- A pre-agreed reason that triggers a decision on whether to stop a medicine, such as not losing enough weight in the expected time.
- Summary of Product Characteristics (SmPC)
- The official, approved document for a medicine, setting out how it should be dosed and used, its warnings and what to monitor.
- Technology appraisal
- An assessment by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence of whether a specific medicine or treatment should be used and for whom.
- Tirzepatide
- A medicine used to help manage overweight and obesity, acting on gut hormone pathways.
- Titration
- Gradually increasing a medicine's dose in planned steps until the right dose is reached, to reduce side effects.
- Tolerability
- How well a patient is able to cope with a medicine and its side effects.
- UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR)
- The UK's main data-protection law governing how personal information is collected and used.