Sometimes, medical issues take people by surprise. If you work with a preventive care specialist, you’re more likely to have conditions diagnosed and treated early, improving your prognosis. Here are four things you need to know about preventive medicine.
1. A Broad Range of Experience:
Preventive care specialists can’t focus on only one medical specialty. Due to the nature of their jobs, they need to be able to identify and provide treatment for many common ailments, as well as know when to refer patients for more specialized care. A given healthcare provider may have experience in a number of medical specialties, including but not limited to occupational or environmental medicine, epidemiology, and public health. Physicians like Dr. Dominique Fradin Read tend to have experience in a variety of medical disciplines so that they can provide preventive care to individuals and communities.
2. A Focus on Prevention:
The goal of preventive medicine is disease prevention, for both individuals and communities. Some physicians may work in clinical settings, providing adults and children with annual wellness exams, biometric screenings, and vaccinations. Others may focus more on improving public health by raising awareness regarding vaccines and sanitation or by teaching people how to recognize when they may need to go see a doctor. A third common focus is on building strong healthcare infrastructure to support community health programs, including educational outreach and improving healthcare systems.
3. Sub-specialties:
Preventive care encompasses numerous sub-specialties. These include highly specialized areas of expertise, such as hyperbaric and undersea medicine, aerospace medicine, and medical toxicology. There are also specialties such as addiction medicine, which requires not only medical knowledge and experience but also empathy and experience in mental healthcare, and clinical informatics, which uses information technology to support and inform medical diagnoses.
4. Occupational Medicine:
One of the most well-known preventive care specialties is occupational medicine. This discipline is meant to improve health and wellbeing in the workplace. Preventive healthcare providers can help businesses design wellness programs and health programs. They can also help these organizations ensure they’re following workplace health and safety regulations. Additionally, healthcare providers can teach employees about lesser-known aspects of preventive medicine, such as cultivating work-life balance and caring for their mental health.
A preventive care physician is an essential aspect of a person’s healthcare. This doctor can provide you with an annual checkup and monitor your baseline health, as well as connect you with specialist referrals if you require or request them.
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