E

Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Biology at USC: The official name for the USC Stem Cell research Institute. USC Stem Cell acceptable on second reference. When referring to the building, use “Broad CIRM Center” instead.

F

Flier vs. Flyer: Per AP Style, use “flyer” to describe a handbill

G

Gender-Affirming Care Program:

• Gender-affirming includes a hyphen
• Non-binary includes a hyphen (per the GLAAD and Transgender Editorial Association style guides)
• When describing the services or type of care, always say gender-affirming care
• Launch date: June, 2022
• Development started 2018
• Leaders include
  • Lindsey Morrison, MHA, creator and co-chair of the Keck Pride LGBTQ Resource Group and Committee
  •  Laura Taylor, MD, the program’s medical director
  • Robert Travieso, MD, the program’s surgical director
• The Translatin@ Coalition is Keck’s first community partnership for this program
• Includes patient navigators who are licensed vocational nurses trained specifically to guide and support patients through the system

Genes:

• Human genes are all in uppercase italics (example: AFP).
• Mouse and rat gene symbols are italicized, with only the first letter in uppercase (example: Gfap).

H

Harold E. and Henrietta C. Lee Women’s Health Center at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center: Lee Women’s Health Center acceptable on second reference.

Harry and Celesta Pappas Quad: Commonly known as “the Pappas Quad,” which is acceptable upon second reference.

Headlines: 

• For HSC News, write headlines in sentence case.
• For blog, put them in title case.
• For alumni emails, use title case.
• For magazine, use title case in general, but check parallel prior issues for exceptions.

Health care: Two words unless it’s a proper name (Norris Healthcare Center).

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act: HIPAA on second reference. Each patient interview requires a signed HIPAA form from the patient.

Health Sciences Campus: Located north of downtown Los Angeles in Lincoln Heights/Boyle Heights. Includes the Keck School of Medicine of USC main campus, Keck Medical Center of USC, and several surrounding buildings including doctor offices and the Soto St. buildings.

Historic General Hospital: used to refer to old County hospital building.

Hyphens (including compound words):

• Avoid hyphenation and line breaks for proper names in print.
• Use hyphens as joiners, such as for compound modifiers: small-business owner. AP also uses hyphens for ranges, such as Jan. 1-4, while some other styles use en dashes. There should be no spaces surrounding a hyphen.
• In 2019, AP Style removed hyphens for dual heritage terms (African American, Asian American) and for commonly recognized modifiers, like “chocolate chip cookie” and “first quarter touchdown.”
• Per AP style: “Generally, use a hyphen in modifiers of three or more words: a know-it-all attitude, black-and-white photography, a sink-or-swim moment, a win-at-all-costs approach. Consider carefully, though, before deciding to use more than three modifiers.
• Generally, when dealing with compound words, use the following formats:
  • For verbs, split up the two words.
  • For nouns, consolidate into one word.
  • For adjectives or modifiers, hyphenate the components.
• For more information, see dashes and hyphens.

I

Immunosuppressed: Preferred term in context of discussing third dose or booster for COVID-19 vaccination. Do not use “immunocompromised.”

Indigenous: Now generally preferred by the group in question for global references, and as a second option to American Indian. See AP Style guide for more on race and ethnicity descriptions, updated June 2020.

Integrative Anatomical Sciences: Department formerly known as Cell and Neurobiology.

Italics: Generally not used except in special circumstances.

J

Jane Anne Nohl Division of Hematology and Center for Blood Diseases: Full name on second mention

K

KeckCare: Obsolete term for myUSCchart. Do not use.

Keck Medical Center of USC:

• On second reference, Keck Medical Center.
• Includes Keck Hospital of USC, USC Norris Cancer Hospital and other Keck Medicine patient care areas on the Health Sciences Campus.
• “USC” never precedes the “Keck” name.
• “USC” is always referenced at the end of a name that includes “Keck.” The preposition before USC is always “of,” never “at.”

Keck Medicine of USC:

• On second reference, Keck Medicine.
• Refers to the health system, which includes Keck Medical Center of USC, USC Verdugo Hills Hospital, offsite ambulatory locations, research centers, et al.
• “USC” never precedes the “Keck” name.
• “USC” is always referenced at the end of a name that includes “Keck.” The preposition before USC is always “of,” never “at.”

Keck School of Medicine of USC:

• On second reference, the Keck School, the medical school.
• Do not use “Keck” by itself to refer to the medical school.
• NEVER use KSOM externally or in official correspondence. This means avoiding usage in HSC News, blogs, magazine articles, etc.
• Use “the” in front of the school name in a sentence, regardless of whether using the full name or just “the Keck School.”
• “USC” never precedes the “Keck” name. The preposition before USC is always “of,” never “at.” When referencing the USC School of Medicine vs. Keck School of Medicine: Editorially, even when writing about the Keck School before the naming gift, we still refer to it as the Keck School. Exceptions are made only when chronology is especially important, or when it could be exceedingly confusing to the reader. Exceptions should be reviewed before publishing.

Keck School of Medicine of USC’s Street Medicine Program

• USC Street Medicine for second reference

L

Languages:

• Foreign languages are not italicized in publications.
• Proper names (Keck Medicine of USC, USC Verdugo Hills Hospital) don’t get translated.
• Sentence case is preferred for program names that are translated.

Leadership: For clinical and academic leadership, see Appendices.

Leapfrog/The Leapfrog Group: The Leapfrog Group is a national watchdog organization that rates hospital patient safety.

• As of April 2024, Keck Hospital has earned eight A ratings in five years
• ‘The’ is part of the organizations name and should be capitalized along with “Leapfrog Group.”

Lee Women’s Health Center: Second reference/informal name for Harold E. and Henrietta C. Lee Women’s Health Center at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Levels:

• Each level designation has its own style based on the governing board
• Most common usage is to capitalize Level and use Roman numerals for the number (Level I trauma center, Level III neonatal intensive care unit)

Los Angeles County + USC Medical Center – NAME CHANGE: Now Los Angeles General on first mention, LAG on second mention

Los Angeles Kings: On second reference, LA Kings (no periods)

M

Maternal-Fetal Medicine: Hyphenate this term when referring to the specialty.

N

Norris: Can refer to: Norris Healthcare Center (HC3), USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, USC Norris Cancer Hospital, and other entities throughout the organization including the word “Norris.” Never use “Norris” alone.

Numbers:

• Use AP Style for numerals: spell out numbers under 10 in most cases. EXCEPTIONS: ages, rankings and percentages.
• Per NCI website, use Roman numerals for cancer, numbers for trials. (Examples: Stage I, II, III, IV; clinical trials Phase 1, 2, 3, 4)

O

Obituaries:

• For Keck School faculty and staff, primarily produced by Office of Faculty Affairs.
• Higher-profile obituaries are produced in concert with Marketing and Communications and Central Communications representatives.
• When publishing obituaries on HSC News, start headline with “In Memoriam:” and publish with the best photo of the deceased available.

OB/GYN: Acceptable in all uses for obstetrics and gynecology. NOTE: This is a departure from AP Style, which uses a dash.

Orthopaedic Surgery:

• Official academic name is the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.
• As with most clinical departments, clinical name is USC – Orthopaedic Surgery.
• DIGITAL copy uses mainly orthopedic, but is often varied
• Note spelling of orthopaedic; should be used with “ae” in all cases unless a proper name (EXCEPTION: U.S. News & World Report ranks it as orthopedic surgery).

P

Pappas Quad: Common name and second-reference name for the Harry and Celesta Pappas Quad on the Keck School main campus.

Percents: Per current AP Style, use the % sign with no space between the numeral and percent. Continue to spell out “percent” in casual usage (Example: She said he has a zero-percent chance of winning.)

Periods: Generally follow AP Style. Periods are used in telling time (a.m. and p.m.) but are not used in academic degrees (MD and PhD).

Phone numbers:

• Use parentheses for area code, then space, then a dash in the phone number: (323) 442-2830.
• Patient-facing publications should always use (800) USC-CARE.
• EXCEPTION: Use the main hospital line for USC-VHH publications: (818) 790-7100.
• For other (physician-facing, etc.), put direct clinic number.

Preoperative, Postoperative: Without hyphens, per the AP Style Guide.

Primary Care Physician Assistant Program:

• Full name on first reference
• Physician assistant (PA) on second reference
• USC PA Pipeline Program is acceptable on all references

Programs: 

• How we refer to most departments on the clinical side.
• A complete list of programs is available at https://www.keckmedicine.org/conditions-and-treatments/.
• Usually listed as “USC – [Program].” (Example: USC – Urology)
• When listing with Keck Medicine, format as: Keck Medicine’s USC — [program name].
• EXCEPTIONS: Otolaryngology (which is The USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery) and (for now) the Department of Surgery

Protester: Preferred over “protestor,” per AP Style.

Punctuation:

• Generally follow AP Style.
• Pay attention to hyphenation with adverbs (minimally invasive procedure — no hyphen because it is an adverb that ends in “ly”). See “hyphens” entry for more information on hyphens.
• Use specialized characters when appropriate, such as á or ñ.

Q

Quotes (also known as Attribution):

• Format generally should be noun-verb, “Sherrie said”, NOT “said Sherrie”.
• Use the latter only when a description of the individual follows the name. (Example: “said Sherrie, a fourth-year medical student.”)
• For HSC News, use last names only on second reference; use full names to avoid confusion if quoting people with the same last name (such as family members).
• For magazine or blog, use Dr. [last name] for doctors and first name for patients.
• HSC News story attributions are in past tense (said).
• Magazine stories and blog posts are in present tense (says), except when describing a specific event in the past.

R

Race-related terms:

• As of Dec. 2020, minority races and ethnicities are capitalized, but “white” still is not.
• See AP Style guide for more information on race and ethnicity descriptions, updated June 2020.

S

Says, said:

• Says is used in magazine and blog articles.
• Said is used in event coverage and HSC News.

Second references: This term refers to subsequent references to an organization or individual within a story. Can be an acronym or abbreviation, or can be generic term (Example: “the institute”)

Spanish:

• Proper names (Keck Medicine of USC, USC Verdugo Hills Hospital) don’t get translated.
• Sentence case is preferred for program names that are translated.

States: Use postal abbreviations (CA, NV, AZ), rather than AP Style (California, Nevada, Arizona).

Stem Cell:

• Full name: Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC
• Second and subsequent references: USC Stem Cell
• The research center name does not include CIRM
• The building name does include CIRM: Eli and Edythe Broad CIRM Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC
• For building, CIRM on second reference

Street Medicine

• Use Keck School of Medicine of USC’s Street Medicine Program on first mention
• USC Street Medicine on second reference

Stroke Center:

• Roxanna Todd Hodges Comprehensive Stroke Center and Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA) Program at Keck Medicine of USC
• Second reference: the stroke center

Subheads:

• Use sentence case.
• When possible, subheads written like sentences (subject+verb+object), but do not punctuate at the end.

Symbols: Do not use symbols (copyright, registration marks, etc.) in editorial copy.

T

Tendonitis: Preferred over tendinitis

That, which, who:

• Use “that” for essential clauses.
• Use “which” for non-essential clauses, preceded by a comma.
• Use “who” for humans (Example: a patient who is…)

Titles (of people; for pieces of writing, see headlines):

• Capitalize before a name, lowercase afterward. EXCEPTIONS: Distinguished Professor and University Professor
• Clinical titles should be listed first, followed by Keck School (faculty) titles.
• To avoid an overly long title reference after a person is first mentioned, it’s usually a good idea to list their clinical title in first mention, then the academic title the next time they’re mentioned.
• If someone has an incredibly long list of titles, pick the most important two or three and stick to those. We don’t have to reprint their resume, so to speak.
• Titles and degrees should be independently verified, regardless of source of original article. USC Directory is the primary source of truth for faculty titles but should be verified by the Keck School Faculty Affairs office.
• In general, try to avoid long titles before names. This often can be accomplished by using a partial title on first reference and then including the full title later: “Keck School of Medicine of USC Dean Laura Mosqueda said that medical students …”; then “Mosqueda, who also is May S. and John H. Hooval Dean’s Chair in Medicine, said …” on second or third reference
• “Clinical” before or after the rank: Different promotional tracks have different titles.
  • Assistant professor of Clinical is on the “Clinical” track
  • Clinical Assistant Professor is on the Clinician Educator or Practitioner track
• University designation should always be listed before a school title and capitalized. (Example: Inderbir Gill, MD, Distinguished Professor of Urology and chair, Catherine and Joseph Aresty Department of Urology)

U

USC Arcadia Hospital:

• USC-AH on second reference
• Formerly Methodist Hospital of Southern California
• Acquired and renamed late summer, 2022

USC Stem Cell: see Stem Cell.

United States: Spell out Unites States on first reference, then abbreviate to U.S. on second reference. EXCEPTION: “US” (no periods) is acceptable in headlines.

U.S. News & World Report:

• First reference: Use periods and ampersand
• Second reference or in a headline: U.S. News (with periods)

University Professor: University designation should always be listed before a school title and capitalized. (Example: Mark S. Humayun, MD, PhD, University Professor of Ophthalmology; Cornelius J. Pings, Chair in Biomedical Sciences; director, Institute for Biomedical Therapeutics; director, USC Roski Eye Institute; director of Sensory Science Initiatives)

Catherine and Joseph Aresty Department of Urology:

• Use full academic department name on first reference.
• Department of Urology acceptable on second reference.
• Clinical department name is USC – Urology.

USC:

• University of Southern California on first reference in external communications
• USC is acceptable for all references in internal communications.
• “USC” never precedes the “Keck” name.
• “USC” is always referenced at the end of a name that includes “Keck” on first use.
• The preposition before USC is always “of,” never “at.” (Example: Welcome to the Keck School of Medicine of USC.)

USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery: second reference/shortened version of USC Tina and Rick Caruso Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery.

USC Caruso Family Center for Childhood Communication: Due to multiple donations from the Carusos, shortened versions of this name are not recommended. However, “the center” is acceptable.”

USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy: 

• For now, replacing USC Mrs. T.H. Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy as first mention.
• Use this name on first reference.
• USC Chan Division is acceptable on second reference.

USC Dr. Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Institute for Biomedical Therapeutics: USC Ginsburg Institute acceptable on second reference and in headlines.

USC Gayle and Edward Roski Eye Institute: USC Roski Eye Institute is acceptable upon second reference and in informal communications.

USC Ginsburg Institute: The shorter, headline- and second-reference-friendly version of the USC Dr. Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Institute for Biomedical Therapeutics.

USC Mrs. T.H. Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy: Currently changed to USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy. USC Chan Division is acceptable upon second reference and in informal communications.

USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center:

• Refers to both clinical and research arm of the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
• On second reference, the cancer center and USC Norris are both acceptable.
• Never use “Norris” as a standalone when referring to the cancer center or the cancer hospital.
• “USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center” can mean either the research institute, the hospital or both combined.
• Only call out “USC Norris Cancer Hospital” in very limited capacity, specifically when talking about specific clinical services offered in the hospital setting.

USC PA Pipeline Program: used on all references to refer to the physician assistant pipeline program

USC Roski Eye Institute: Shortened/second-reference name for USC Gayle and Edward Roski Eye Institute.

USC Stevens Hall for Neuroimaging: USC Stevens Hall on second reference

USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute:

• USC Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute is acceptable on second reference.
• Cannot be shortened to USC Stevens because of multiple Stevens gifts to USC
• INI is used for internal communications only. Do not use externally.

USC Street Medicine: 

• Second reference version of the street medicine program.
• First reference: Keck School of Medicine of USC’s Street Medicine Program

USC Tina and Rick Caruso Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery:

• USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery is acceptable on second reference.
• Cannot be shortened to USC Caruso for second reference because of multiple Caruso gifts to USC.

USC Verdugo Hills Hospital:

• USC-VHH on second reference
• Remember: Not all USC-VHH doctors are Keck Medicine doctors. Make sure to check before featuring a doctor from this hospital (this can be done by Googling the doctor’s name + Keck, or by checking the USC Faculty Directory).

USC Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute: No shortened versions of name approved for second reference, but “the institute” is acceptable.