Preventive Medicine Research

The saying an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure applies as much to the field of medicine as it ever has. It is far better to prevent people from getting sick than it is to try to cure them once they are already sick. This is what the field of preventive medicine research does, they try to prevent illness or to limit the impact when disease is present. There are lots of ways that this can be done so there are a wide variety of research areas. In a lot of ways preventive medicine is similar to public health medicine but the focus of the research is somewhat different.

The primary goal of preventative medicine is, not surprisingly to prevent illness and injury. In this respect it has a lot in common with public health medicine except that preventative medicine focuses on preventing illness in the individual rather than in the population as a whole. Because of this research is less focused on infectious diseases and more focused on promoting health in the individual. This includes things like proper nutrition, immunizations, exercise and getting people to quit smoking. There is considerable scope for research in these fields since pretty much anything that helps you to stay healthy is preventative medicine.

Preventative medicine research also focuses heavily on detecting illness as early as possible. It is well established that the earlier treatment is started the better the outcome will be so detecting problems early is important for maintaining good health. This is an area that is a major focus of research in preventive medicine because it prevents the disease from being worse than it has to be. This not only helps to prevent illness it also helps to improve the quality of life of the people who are suffering with the illness.

A great deal of research is also invested in limiting the impact of illness. In many cases illness and injury will have long lasting and even permanent impacts on the lives of the people who suffer from these conditions. The goal of this research is to prevent the disease from getting any worse and as far as possible to help restore function. In this regard there is considerable overlap with research into rehabilitation medicine. The goal is normally not to restore function to the levels you had before the illness but to maximize the function that is still available.

One other area that is an active source of research for preventive medicine is the health care system itself. There is a real danger of too much intervention on the part of health care providers and preventive medicine research helps to address this problem. There can be serious consequences to receiving unnecessary medical treatment so this is an important area of study. Researchers also work to minimize the damage when there has been unnecessary health care intervention.