Medicine is the field of health and healing. It includes nurses, doctors and various specialists. It covers disease diagnosis, treatment and prevention, medical research and many other aspects of health.
Medicine aims to promote and maintain health and well-being.
Conventional modern medicine is sometimes called allopathic medicine. This involves the use of medications or surgical interventions, often supported by counseling and lifestyle measures.
Types of alternative and complementary medicine include acupuncturehomeopathy, herbal medicine, art therapy, traditional Chinese medicine and many more.
Modern medicine has many fields and aspects. Here are a few.
Clinical practice
A clinician is a health worker who works directly with patients in a hospital or other health care setting. Nurses, doctors, psychotherapists and other specialists are all clinicians.
Not all medical specialists are clinicians. Researchers and laboratory workers are not clinicians because they do not work with patients.
The physician evaluates the individual with the goal of diagnosing, treating, and preventing disease using knowledge acquired through training, research, experience, and clinical judgment.
Biomedical research
This field of science seeks ways to prevent and treat diseases that lead to illness or death.
Biomedical scientists use biotechnology techniques to study biological processes and diseases. Their goal is to develop effective treatments and cures.
Biomedical research requires careful experimentation, development and evaluation. This involves biologists, chemists, doctors, pharmacologists and others.
Drugs
This area examines drugs or medications and how to use them.
Doctors and other healthcare professionals use medications for the medical diagnosis, treatment, cure, and prevention of disease.
Surgery
Surgical procedures are necessary to diagnose and treat certain types of diseases, malformations and injuries. They use instrumental and manual means rather than medications.
A surgeon may perform surgery to remove or replace diseased tissue or organs, or they may use surgery to remove tissue for a biopsy. Sometimes they remove unwanted tissue and then send it for diagnosis.
Medical equipement
Healthcare professionals use a wide range of instruments to diagnose and treat an illness or other condition, to prevent symptoms from getting worse, to replace a damaged part, such as a hip or knee, and more.
Medical devices range from test tubes to sophisticated scanning machines.
Alternative and complementary medicine
This includes any practice aimed at healing but not part of conventional medicine. The techniques are very varied. They include the use of herbs, manipulation of the body’s “channels”, relaxation, etc.
Alternative and complementary do not have the same meaning:
Alternative medicine: People use a different option from the conventional option, such as resorting to relaxation measures to improve headacherather than painkillers.
Complementary medicines: People add another treatment option to a main treatment. For example, they may use relaxation as well as pain relievers for a headache.
Alternative and complementary therapies are often based on traditional knowledge rather than scientific evidence or clinical trials.
Examples include homeopathy, acupuncture, Ayurveda, naturopathic medicine, and traditional Chinese medicine.
Clinical research
Researchers conduct investigations to find out what diseases are present, why they occur, what can treat or prevent them, what makes them more likely to occur, and many other aspects of health.
Clinical trials are one aspect of clinical research. They aim to determine whether a therapy – often a drug – is safe and effective in treating a specific disease.
The most effective way to demonstrate the effectiveness of a drug or technique is to conduct a large, double-blind, randomized, long-term human clinical study.
In this type of study, researchers compare the effect of a therapy or medication with a placebono treatment, nor any other therapy or medication.
Psychotherapy
Advice, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and other forms of “talking healing” can be helpful to people suffering from illnesses that affect their health. Mental Healthfrom depression has stress to chronic pain.
Physiotherapy and occupational therapy
These treatments do not involve medications, although a person may use medications alongside them.
Physical therapy can help improve strength and flexibility in people suffering from a condition that affects their musculoskeletal system.
Occupational therapy can teach people new and better ways to do things physically. A person who has had a strokefor example, could benefit from learning to walk again, using techniques they may not have used before.
Other areas of medicine include pharmacology and pharmacy, nursing, speech pathology, medical practice management and many others.
There are many branches of medicine. Here are a few.
Anatomy: This is the study of the physical structure of the body.
Biochemistry: A biochemist studies chemical compounds and how they affect the body.
Biomechanics: This focuses on the structure of the body’s biological systems and how they function, using a mechanical approach.
Biostatistics: Researchers apply statistics to biological fields. This is crucial to the success of medical research and many areas of medical practice.
Biophysics: This uses physics, mathematics, chemistry and biology to model and understand the functioning of biological systems.
Cytology: This is a branch of pathology that involves the medical and scientific microscopic study of cells.
Embryology: This branch of biology studies the formation, early growth and development of organisms.
Endocrinology: Scientists study hormones and their impact on the body.
Epidemiology: Researchers track the causes, distribution and control of diseases within populations.
Genetic: This is the study of genes and their impact on health and the body.
Histology: This involves looking at the shape of structures under a microscope. It is also called microscopic anatomy.
Microbiology: This is the study of organisms too small to be seen with the naked eye, called microorganisms. Aspects of microbiology include bacteriology, virology, mycology (the study of fungi), and parasitology.
Neuroscience: Neuroscientists study the nervous system and the brain and study diseases of the nervous system. Aspects of neuroscience include computer modeling and psychophysics. Some types of neuroscience are cognitive neuroscience, cellular neuroscience, and molecular neuroscience.
Nutrition: Nutritionists study how foods and drinks influence health and how they can help treat, cure and prevent different diseases and conditions.
Pathology: It is the study of disease. A pathologist often works in a laboratory, where they perform tests—usually on a sample of blood, urine, or body tissue—to help diagnose diseases and conditions.
Pharmacology: This involves the study of pharmaceutical drugs, or medications, where they come from, how they work, how the body reacts to them, and what they consist of.
Radiology: Radiologists use x-rays and scanning equipment during the diagnostic procedure, and sometimes as part of treatment as well.
Toxicology: A toxicologist studies poisons, what they are, what effects they have on the body and how to detect them.
These are not all aspects and fields of medicine. Many people work in patient transportation, dentistry, not to mention the many different specialties that doctors can choose to pursue, such as emergency medicine.
For anyone considering medicine as a career, there are a wide variety of options.
Qualifications, skills and preferences will make a particular field more attractive or suitable for an individual.
