Family & Community Medicine (2024)

FAQs

What does community medicine mean in medical terms? ›

Community Medicine is an academic subject, a branch of Medicine which deals with promotion of health and prevention of diseases, involving people's participation, utilizing professional management skills.

The primary role of community medicine is to decrease the burden of preventable disease in underserved communities by addressing the root cause or by detecting a disease in its early stages.

Family medicine is a medical specialty within primary care that provides continuing and comprehensive health care for the individual and family across all ages, genders, diseases, and parts of the body. The specialist, who is usually a primary care physician, is named a family physician.

What Are Communities of Practice? Coined by Drs. Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger-Trayner, Communities of Practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.

Examples of CM in action include the growing number of postgraduate medical education training programs in preventive medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, and emergency medicine with a focus on the intersection of social justice and health equity.

Family medicine involves more outpatient care while internal medicine has more of an emphasis on inpatient care. At least one year of internal medicine training must involve caring for hospitalized patients, with training in intensive/critical care settings.

Preventive Medicine, as the name suggests is about “preventing” diseases. Hence, it is largely the application of medical knowledge in the “prevention” of disease in “healthy” or apparently healthy individuals. Community Medicine, on the other hand, is a larger specialty.

Generally no one person or institution accepts the responsibility for the health of a community or population. It is this acceptance of responsibility that distinguishes COPC from much of the primary care that is so common today, characterized by the episodic care of those patients who seek care when sick.

Health is a relative state in which one is able to function well physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually to express the full range of one's unique potentialities within the environment in which one lives.

You should consider a family physician or internal medicine specialist (internist) to serve as your PCP to provide overall management of your health care. You also may want to choose an obstetrician/gynecologist if you are a woman, or a pediatrician for your children.

What makes family medicine different? ›

Family medicine education is broader in nature than internal medicine since it involves training in the care of children and procedures and services often provided by other specialties.

A doctor of osteopathic medicine graduates from a U.S. osteopathic medical school. A doctor of medicine, also known as an M.D., graduates from a traditional medical school. A major difference between D.O.s and M.D.s is that some doctors of osteopathic medicine use manual medicine as part of treatment.

💡 Communities of practice focus on the joy of shared interest, personal growth, and mutual support. For instance, a book club (a CoP for literature enthusiasts) provides a platform for members to explore different genres, understand various perspectives, and enrich their reading experience.

Communities of practice can drive strategy, generate new lines of business, solve problems, promote the spread of best practices, develop people's professional skills, and help companies recruit and retain talent.

Health is a relative state in which one is able to function well physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually to express the full range of one's unique potentialities within the environment in which one lives.

The difference between public health and community health

As mentioned, public health efforts, such as disease prevention, involve an entire state, region or country. Community health, as its name suggests, typically focuses on concentrated areas, with many efforts occurring at the city or neighborhood level.

The abbreviation of the journal title "Community medicine" is "Community Med.". It is the recommended abbreviation to be used for abstracting, indexing and referencing purposes and meets all criteria of the ISO 4 standard for abbreviating names of scientific journals.

Medical community means medical doctors, institutions such as hospitals and clinics, and similar institutions that are active in the personal care of patients.