Preventive Medicine

Preventive Medicine is a branch of medicine that focuses on the health of individuals, communities, and defined populations. Its goal is to protect, promote, and maintain health and well-being and to prevent disease, disability, and death.

Preventive medicine specialists are licensed medical doctors (MD) or doctors of osteopathy (DO), who possess core competencies in biostatistics, epidemiology, environmental and occupational medicine, planning and evaluation of health services, management of health care organizations, research into causes of disease and injury in population groups, and the practice of prevention in clinical medicine.

History

The concept of preventive medicine is not new and it can be traced back to ancient civilizations. In the 19th century, the concept was further developed with the establishment of the germ theory of disease.

Types of Preventive Medicine

Preventive medicine can be categorized into three types:

• Primary Prevention: This aims to prevent disease or injury before it occurs. This is done by preventing exposures to hazards that cause disease or injury, altering unhealthy or unsafe behaviors that can lead to disease or injury, and increasing resistance to disease or injury should exposure occur.

• Secondary Prevention: This aims to reduce the impact of a disease or injury that has already occurred. This is done by detecting and treating disease or injury as soon as possible to halt or slow its progress, encouraging personal strategies to prevent reinjury or recurrence, and implementing programs to return people to their original health and function to prevent long-term problems.

• Tertiary Prevention: This aims to soften the impact of an ongoing illness or injury that has lasting effects. This is done by helping people manage long-term, often-complex health problems and injuries (e.g. chronic diseases, permanent impairments) in order to improve as much as possible their ability to function, their quality of life and their life expectancy.

See Also

• Public Health
• Epidemiology
• Health Promotion
• Occupational Medicine
• Environmental Medicine

References

Preventive Medicine Resources
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