Healthcare can be viewed as taking only a reactive action to treat an injury, illness, or disease. Although treatment is an important part of medicine, some physicians focus on preventing illness and disease.
This is the process where doctors work together to prevent and treat disease. While many areas of practice or subspecialties in the medical, they all focus on one age group, disease, or body part. Preventive medicine is a broad field that covers all aspects of the human body.
What is preventive medicine, and why is it important? We will be exploring the details of this medical specialty to see how it impacts not only individual patients but also communities and large populations.
What is preventive medicine?
Preventive medicine, sometimes referred to simply as preventive medicine, is precisely what its name implies: It aims to prevent illness or disease.
Preventive medicine is based on protecting, promoting and maintaining health and wellbeing. This field aims to prevent disease, disability, and death, both on an individual and large-scale basis, in communities and across populations.
All physicians support preventative medicine, but some doctors choose to specialize in this area. This specialty uses biostatistics, epidemiology, and a combination of medical, socioeconomic, and behavioural sciences. They might evaluate and manage health care organizations and study the causes of injury and disease in specific populations.
This interdisciplinary branch of medicine examines the patient as a whole, including all factors that can influence their health. Preventive medicine has a wide scope. It includes elements of socioeconomics and public policy, health equity, and disparities in certain communities or populations.
Why is preventive medicine so important?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists heart disease, cancer, stroke and other chronic lower respiratory diseases as the leading causes of death in the US. These chronic diseases account for seven of the ten deaths in the US.
Preventive medicine is more important than ever in identifying potential health problems that could lead to premature death. While screening and detection are important components of healthcare, they are not the only aspect of preventive medicine that can make a difference. Adopting healthy habits such as exercising and eating right is equally important.
Preventative medicine can help lower costs. Seventy-five per cent of the country’s annual healthcare spending is spent on chronic but largely preventable diseases, according to the CDC. One-third of all deaths in the US are caused by heart disease and stroke each year. The healthcare system is responsible for approximately $216 billion per year in healthcare costs and $147 billion in lost productivity at work.
Another example is diabetes. Diabetes affects more than 34.2 million Americans. Prediabetes is a second condition that has 88 million people. This condition can cause serious complications such as blindness, kidney disease, and heart disease. Recent data shows that this disease causes an annual deficit of approximately $327 billion in medical expenses and lost productivity.
There is also an important component of public health in preventive medicine. Although it is well-known that preventive medicine reduces the likelihood of death, disability, and disease, many barriers keep community members from accessing this vital care. Professionals need to focus on policy and law changes to ensure more people have access to essential services.
Different types of preventive medicine
Both clinical and non-clinical environments can be used for preventive medicine. Clinician preventive medicine doctors work directly with patients. They can provide advice on unhealthy lifestyles and run preventive screenings. They may be able to help patients with lifestyle changes. This is often the case when dealing with obesity, smoking, diabetes and other health issues.
Physicians not clinically trained in preventative medicine don’t have the same level of contact with patients. This branch of medicine also includes epidemiology and health policy. It also focuses more on the impact of social and behavioural factors on one’s health. Preventive medicine doctors can work in the field’s clinical and non-clinical areas.
Aerospace medicine
Aerospace medicine refers to the safety and health of people in space and air vehicles. These gadgets can pose several environmental hazards for both passengers and workers.
Aerospace medicine physicians work to improve the safety and well-being of people who travel in space and the air. They can also prevent injuries due to environmental factors such as radiation, microgravity, G-forces and emergency ejection injury.
Occupational medicine
Occupational Medicine is a form of medicine that aims to reduce injuries, disabilities, and deaths among workers in all industries. Specialists in occupational medicine study the effects of workplace environments on employees’ health and examine their physical, chemical, and biological conditions.
Employers can use these practitioners to identify employees’ safety and health risks and reduce the risk of injury or death from occupational hazards. They can also recommend policies to promote safe work environments, diagnose and treat occupational diseases and injuries, or research work-related health problems.
Public health
Preventive medicine doctors are active in public health and promote wellbeing and health on a wider scale. These doctors work with certain populations and communities, combining preventive-based clinical knowledge with population health.
Public health doctors analyze public health data and investigate the causes. Public health physicians also create strategies to address health problems in public. This can lead to new programs that promote overall health and prevent the spread of diseases. They also work with other professionals to create legislation that will benefit entire communities.
