🚨 Introducing the ECMO & ICU Glossary on ecmo.life
If you’ve ever tried to explain ECMO to a patient’s loved one at the bedside—while alarms are going off, the team is rounding, or a consult is calling—you know how tough it can be. The language of ECMO and intensive care is packed with technical terms that can overwhelm even the most attentive family member.
That’s why I created a new resource on my companion site: 👉 ECMO and ICU Terms: A Glossary for Patients & Families
It’s part of ECMO 143: A Patient & Family Guide, where I’m building clear, compassionate, and practical tools to support the people who matter most—our patients and their loved ones.
💌 Bonus: If you subscribe at ecmo.life, I’ll send you a PDF copy of the glossary to print or share with anyone who might benefit from it.
💡 Why a Glossary?
As a newer ECMO specialist, I remember constantly looking up terms early on. If it was hard for me—with a clinical background—how much harder must it be for families to hear these words for the first time in the middle of a crisis?
Whether it’s “VA vs. VV,” “oxygenator failure,” or “anticoagulation monitoring,” this glossary breaks down over 150 terms in plain language—without dumbing anything down.
📱 How You Can Use It
At the bedside: Share the link with families when they’re overwhelmed by acronyms.
During family meetings: Use it to create a shared vocabulary.
As part of discharge planning: Give it to survivors transitioning out of the ICU who want to understand what they went through.
The glossary is still growing, but I’ll cap it at around 200 terms to keep it clean and readable. I'd love to hear from you if you have suggestions or terms I missed.
🙏 Thanks for being part of the ECMO 143 learning journey. Jon
📬 Subscribe to ecmo.life to get the full glossary PDF and stay updated on new patient- and family-focused resources.