A preventive medicine doctor is a doctor who has experience in public health and clinical care. This allows them to provide information and expertise in preventing injuries, illnesses and deaths. Preventive medicine can be practiced both in the clinic and out of the clinic. Preventive clinical medicine doctors see patients.
They can provide counseling on unhealthy habits, conduct preventive health screenings, and administer vaccines. They can work with patients who would benefit from lifestyle changes and often face common cases such as diabetes, smoking, or obesity. Physicians who wish to subspecialize in a specific area of preventive medicine must take an additional training fellowship approved by the Accreditation Council for Postgraduate Medical Education or the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. They work to prevent injuries from many environmental factors, including microgravity, radiation exposure, G-forces, emergency ejection injuries, and hypoxic conditions.
Many doctors in this specialty have aspects of their work and their impacts on society published in a preventive medicine journal such as The American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Promoting the importance of preventive medicine and supporting preventive medicine physicians around the world is no easy task. Public Health and General Preventive Medicine focus on promoting health and preventing diseases in individuals and communities. They apply their expertise in medicine, social, economic and behavioral sciences to improve the health and quality of life of individuals, families, communities and populations through disease prevention and health promotion.
After that, the doctor must complete one year of practice in that special area and pass the preventive medicine board exam. Preventive medicine physicians may specialize in aerospace medicine, occupational medicine or public health, and general preventive medicine. Because preventive medicine physicians are needed for a wide variety of health and wellness issues, they can have a huge impact on the individual lives of patients, as well as the overall health of the community. Preventive medicine physicians may work in fields such as mental and behavioral health, environmental health, epidemiology, health systems management, infectious diseases, or lifestyle medicine.
A preventive medicine specialist focuses on the health of individuals and populations defined to protect, promote and maintain health and well-being, and to prevent diseases, disabilities and premature deaths. Preventive medicine is an interdisciplinary branch of medicine that focuses on the patient as a whole and the many factors that influence their health. If your answer to any of these questions is “yes,” then preventive medicine may be your career path. Now you know what preventive medicine is and how doctors incorporate it into their practice or specialize in it entirely.
