DOE (dyspnea on exertion)
DOE stands for dyspnea on exertion: shortness of breath that comes on with physical activity.
How to read it
Duke Health’s guide for patients reading their notes explains DOE as “symptoms of shortness of breath that occur when you exert yourself”. North Carolina’s EMS list and the Central California EMS Agency give the same expansion. Dyspnea is the medical word for breathlessness: the textbook Clinical Methods defines it as the sensation of difficult or uncomfortable breathing, something the patient perceives and reports.
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These pages explain what medical abbreviations and symbols stand for. They are not medical advice and give no doses: a pharmacist or prescriber can explain what any label means for you.
Date of exam
Charleston Area Medical Center’s list gives DOE two meanings, “dyspnea on exertion/date of exam”. On a form, next to a date, it can mean the date of an examination.
DOE, SOB and other breathing shorthand
SOB is shortness of breath in general (MedlinePlus; Charleston Area Medical Center writes “short of breath”). Clinical Methods covers two related terms in the same chapter: orthopnea, breathlessness when lying down that eases on sitting or standing, and paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea (PND), shortness of breath that wakes a person from sleep.
More medical chart abbreviations
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Sources
- Common Medical Abbreviations you may encounter when reading your notes in MyChart, Duke Health (Duke MyChart), D
- Abbreviations Approved for Medical Records, Charleston Area Medical Center, D; S
- Approved Medical Abbreviations, Appendix G, revised 15 October 2023, North Carolina College of Emergency Physicians, via the North Carolina Office of EMS, D
- Accepted Abbreviations List, CCEMSA policies and procedures, general, Central California EMS Agency (Fresno County Department of Public Health), D
- Dyspnea, Orthopnea, and Paroxysmal Nocturnal Dyspnea (Clinical Methods, 3rd edition, chapter 11), V. Mukerji, in Walker HK, Hall WD, Hurst JW, editors; Butterworths, 1990, NCBI Bookshelf (U.S. National Library of Medicine), Definition
- Appendix B: Some Common Abbreviations, MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine, S
Last reviewed September 30, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research