Branches of medicine

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Working together as an interdisciplinary team, many highly trained health professionals besides medical practitioners are involved in the delivery of modern health care. Some examples include: nurses, laboratory scientists, pharmacists, physiotherapists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, dietitians and bioengineers.

The scope and sciences underpinning human medicine overlap many other fields. Dentistry and psychology, while separate disciplines from medicine, are sometimes also considered medical fields. Physician assistants, nurse practitioners and midwives treat patients and prescribe medication in many legal jurisdictions. Veterinary medicine applies similar techniques to the care of animals.

Medical doctors have many specializations and subspecializations which are listed below. There are variations from country to country regarding which specialities certain subspecialities are in.

Contents

[edit] Basic sciences

[edit] Diagnostic specialties

[edit] Clinical disciplines

  • Anesthesiology (AE) or anaesthesia (BE) is the clinical discipline concerned with providing anesthesia. Pain medicine is often practiced by specialised anesthesiologists.
  • Dermatology is concerned with the skin and its diseases. In the UK, dermatology is a subspeciality of general medicine.
  • Emergency medicine is concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of acute or life-threatening conditions, including trauma, surgical, medical, pediatric, and psychiatric emergencies.
  • General practice, family practice, family medicine or primary care is, in many countries, the first port-of-call for patients with non-emergency medical problems. Family doctors are usually able to treat over 90% of all complaints without referring to specialists.
  • Hospital medicine is the general medical care of hospitalized patients. Doctors whose primary professional focus is hospital medicine are called hospitalists.
  • Internal medicine is concerned with systemic diseases of adults, i.e. those diseases that affect the body as a whole (restrictive, current meaning), or with all adult non-operative somatic medicine (traditional, inclusive meaning), thus excluding pediatrics, surgery, gynecology and obstetrics, and psychiatry. There are several subdisciplines of internal medicine:
  • Naturopathic medicine is concerned with primary care, natural remedies, patient education and disease prevention.
  • Neurology is concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of nervous system diseases. It is a subspeciality of general medicine in the UK.
  • Obstetrics and gynecology (often abbreviated as Ob/Gyn) are concerned respectively with childbirth and the female reproductive and associated organs. Reproductive medicine and fertility medicine are generally practiced by gynecological specialists.
  • Palliative care is a relatively modern branch of clinical medicine that deals with pain and symptom relief and emotional support in patients with terminal diseases including cancer and heart failure.
  • Pediatrics (AE) or paediatrics (BE) is devoted to the care of infants, children, and adolescents. Like internal medicine, there are many pediatric subspecialities for specific age ranges, organ systems, disease classes, and sites of care delivery. Most subspecialities of adult medicine have a pediatric equivalent such as pediatric cardiology, pediatric endocrinology, pediatric gastroenterology, pediatric hematology, pediatric oncology, pediatric ophthalmology, and neonatology.
  • Physical medicine and rehabilitation (or physiatry) is concerned with functional improvement after injury, illness, or congenital disorders.
  • Preventive medicine is the branch of medicine concerned with preventing disease.
    • Community health or public health is an aspect of health services concerned with threats to the overall health of a community based on population health analysis.
    • Occupational medicine's principal role is the provision of health advice to organizations and individuals to ensure that the highest standards of health and safety at work can be achieved and maintained.
  • Psychiatry is a branch of medicine that studies and treats mental disorders. Related non-medical fields are psychotherapy and clinical psychology. There are several subdisciplines of psychiatry:
    • Child and adolescent psychiatry focuses on the care of children and adolescents with mental, emotional, and learning problems including ADHD, autism, and family conflicts.
    • Geriatric psychiatry focuses on the care of elderly people with mental illnesses including dementias, post-stroke cognitive changes, and depression.
    • Addiction psychiatry focuses on substance abuse and its treatment.
    • Forensic psychiatry focuses on the interface of psychiatry and law.
  • Radiation therapy is concerned with the therapeutic use of ionizing radiation and high energy elementary particle beams in patient treatment.
  • Surgical specialties employ operative treatment. Some disciplines are highly specialized and are often not considered subdisciplines of surgery, although their naming might suggest so.
    • General surgery is traditionally defined as the specialty of surgery of the skin, endocrine glands, and abdomen (and, sometimes, the mammary glands). In some countries, it is still deemed a prerequisite training prior to progression to training in certain subspecialties, but lately has evolved into its own subspecialty.
    • Cardiovascular surgery is the surgical specialty that is concerned with the heart and major blood vessels of the chest.
    • Neurosurgery is concerned with the operative treatment of diseases of the nervous system.
    • Maxillofacial surgery is concerned with the operative treatment of diseases, deformities, and other conditions of lower and middle one-third of face, including oral cavity and teeth (technically a subspeciality of dentistry).
    • Ophthalmology deals with the diseases of the eyes and their treatment.
    • Orthopedic surgery consists of surgery of the locomotor system.
    • Otolaryngology (or otorhinolaryngology or ENT/ear-nose-throat) is concerned with treatment of ear, nose, and throat disorders. The term head and neck surgery defines a closely related specialty which is concerned mainly with the surgical management of cancer of the same anatomical structures.
    • Pediatric surgery treats a wide variety of thoracic and abdominal (and sometimes urologic) diseases of childhood.
    • Plastic surgery includes aesthetic surgery (operations that are done for other than medical purposes) as well as reconstructive surgery (operations to restore function and/or appearance after traumatic or operative mutilation).
    • Surgical oncology is concerned with curative and palliative surgical approaches to cancer treatment.
    • Urology focuses on the urinary tracts of males and females, and on the male reproductive system. It is often practiced together with andrology ("men's health").
    • Vascular surgery is surgery of peripheral blood vessels, i.e. those outside of the chest (usually operated on by cardiovascular surgeons) and of the central nervous system (treated by neurosurgery).
  • Urgent care focuses on delivery of unscheduled, walk-in care outside of the hospital emergency department for injuries and illnesses that are not severe enough to require care in an emergency department.
  • Gender-based medicine studies the biological and physiological differences between the human sexes and how that affects differences in disease.

[edit] Interdisciplinary fields

Interdisciplinary sub-specialties of medicine are:

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