Differences in Public Health & Medical Practice Philosophy

The authors of "Who Will Keep the Public Healthy? Educating Public Health Professionals for the 21st Century" stress that public health and medical practice share a responsibility to improve the health of society. Each profession approaches this goal in its own way. Despite their shared overall commitment to improving the health of individuals and society, there are significant differences in public health and medical practice philosophy.

Focus

• Public health focuses on the health of populations. Public health researchers and practitioners have to balance the needs and rights of individuals against the best interests of communities as a whole. Public health focuses on interventions that impact both current and future generations of people. In contrast, the focus of medical practice is on the health of individuals. Medical practitioners are dedicated to serving the best interests of their individual patients and respecting their autonomy. Clinicians serve as advocates for individual patients and their families.

Emphasis

• The emphasis in public health practice is on injury and disease prevention, as well as health promotion, in the whole community. Public health recognizes that the health of the individual and the health of society are interdependent, and there may be times when the needs of the community outweigh the rights of individual patients.

  The emphasis in medical practice is on the diagnosis and treatment of the whole patient. Medical practitioners recognize their social responsibilities, but the health of the individual patient is paramount.

Paradigm

• According to the Bernard J. Turnock, author of "Public Health: What It Is and How It Works," public health endeavors to impact the health of communities through the development and implementation of interventions that target biological factors, individual lifestyles and behaviors, social determinants of health, the physical environment, as well as access to and provision of medical care. Medical practice concentrates primarily on the provision of medical care to individuals.

Ethics

• Public health ethics grew out of bioethics, but it has continued to grow into a system that reflects the values and beliefs of the field. Because its primary focus is on the health of communities, public health is also heavily influenced by communitarianism and social justice.

  Medical practice is guided by medical ethics, particularly those principles that support the autonomy and privacy of individuals and their right to competent care. In recent years, the influence of principles of social justice has grown in medical practice, particularly in regard to improving health care access and eliminating discrimination.

Specializations

• Public health brings together and depends on variety of disciplines. According to the Institute of Medicine, specializations in public health develop out of the need for experts in the areas of particular health problems, settings and populations, analytics, or other skills such as evaluation, study design or policy development.

  In medical practice, specializations are organized around etiology or pathophysiology, specific patient groups, organs or technical skills.