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 the medical specialty which provides continuing, comprehensive health care for the individual and family. It is a specialty in breadth that integrates the biological, clinical and behavioral sciences.

Family & Community Health's supplement publishing program is the perfect solution to help you achieve your goal. Supplements (also known as supplemental issues) are themed, peer-review issues that can publish print and online alongside one of Family & Community Health's regularly scheduled quarterly issues.

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.

Medical interventions that occur in communities can be classified as three categories: Primary care, Secondary care, and Tertiary care. Each category focuses on a different level and approach towards the community or population group.

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.

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.

Family physicians are trained to diagnose and treat an entire spectrum of medical issues for patients of all ages. “Family physicians have a broader scope,” Dr. Doggett explains.

 PHC/CHN:  Family is the basic social institution and the primary group in society.  A social group characterized by common residence, economic cooperation and reproduction.  Includes both sexes, at least two of who maintain a socially approved sexual relationship, and one or. two children.

Parents and guardians can take direct steps to promote their children's health and development. For example, they can schedule preventive health care visits that include developmental screenings, foster nurturing relationships, protect children from health risks, teach healthy habits, and provide healthy foods.

Family Engagement Improves Care for Patients

Family members can give information such as allergies, intolerances and family history. In some cases, such as when the patient suffers from dementia, family members may provide more information on medical history than the patient themself.

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.

Public health is the science of protecting and improving the health of people and their communities. Community health is a non-clinical, localized subspecialty within the wider field of public health. Professionals working in both fields should have analytical skills, cultural understanding and language skills.

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.

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.