Preventive Medicine. Principles of Prevention in the Occurrence and Progression of Disease

Abstract

With one exception, the standard medical specialties have been derived from anatomical bases (Ophthalmology, Otolaryngology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Gastroenterology, Orthopedics, etc.), age of the patient (Pediatrics and Geriatrics) or the operational vs. the non-operational approach, i.e., Medicine and Surgery. The exception is Preventive Medicine, which has been called by the late Doctor Alan Gregg “A matter of attitude … cutting the whole business in an entirely different plane.” Its concepts extend to all the other specialties and to general practitioners, dentists, public health workers and nurses, and to workers in the paramedical fields of epidemiology, statistics, microbiology, immunology, parasitology, engineering, social work, nutrition, and others. It is not surprising that textbooks dealing with such a broad range of subject material vary greatly in their methods of approaching it. The stated purpose of this book is “to help medical students, physicians and others in the health field understand better how to practice Preventive Medicine.”