In medicine, a unit can refer to several things:
- A single item, thing, or person.
- A group of persons or things considered to be a whole because of common activities or functions.
- An amount that has been specified as a standard of measurement, weight, or any type of scale or system that is formed by multiplication or fractions. For example, a gram is a small unit of weight.
- An area of a hospital that has personnel and equipment that are capable of treating patients with a particular condition, illness, or other common problem. For example, some hospitals have a burn unit where burn victims are treated and cared for.
- A specific amount of a substance that is needed to produce a desired effect. In this sense, unit is abbreviated as "U." A units value will differ depending on the type of substance (such as a medication) that it is being used to describe.
When it comes to medications, some drugs are measured in International Units (IU), which is a measure of the biological effect of a medication and is mostly used in pharmacology. Other medications are measured in grams (g), milligrams (mg), micrograms (mcg), and milliliters (mL), among others.
