Emergency medicine is the medical specialty concerned with the care of illnesses or injuries requiring immediate medical attention. Emergency physicians care for unscheduled and undifferentiated patients of all ages. As first-line providers, their primary responsibility is to initiate resuscitation and stabilization and to start investigations and interventions to diagnose and treat illnesses in the acute phase. Emergency physicians generally practise in hospital emergency departments, pre-hospital settings via emergency medical services, and intensive care units, but may also work in primary care settings such as urgent care clinics. Sub-specializations of emergency medicine include disaster medicine, medical toxicology, point-of-care ultrasonography, critical care medicine, hyperbaric medicine, sports medicine, palliative care, or aerospace medicine.
In the medical profession, a general practitioner (GP) is a medical doctor who treats acute and chronic illnesses and provides preventive care and health education to patients.
Orthodontics is a specialty of dentistry that deals with the diagnosis, prevention, and correction of malpositioned teeth and jaws, and misaligned bite patterns. It can also focus on modifying facial growth, known as dentofacial orthopedics.
Anesthesiology, anaesthesiology, anaesthesia or anaesthetics is the medical specialty concerned with the total perioperative care of patients before, during and after surgery. It encompasses anesthesia, intensive care medicine, critical emergency medicine, and pain medicine. A physician specialized in this field of medicine is called an anesthesiologist, anaesthesiologist or anaesthetist, depending on the country.
Hospital medicine is a medical specialty that exists in some countries as a branch of internal or family medicine, dealing with the care of acutely ill hospitalized patients. Physicians whose primary professional focus is caring for hospitalized patients only while they are in the hospital are called hospitalists. Originating in the United States, this type of medical practice has extended into Australia and Canada. The vast majority of physicians who refer to themselves as hospitalists focus their practice upon hospitalized patients. Hospitalists are not necessarily required to have separate board certification in hospital medicine.
The Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA) is a nationally recognised professional association and trade union in the UK dedicated solely to hospital consultants, specialty doctors and core/specialty hospital doctors in training and Foundation grades, originally established in 1948 as the Regional Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association.
Residency or postgraduate training is specifically a stage of graduate medical education. It refers to a qualified physician who practices medicine, usually in a hospital or clinic, under the direct or indirect supervision of a senior medical clinician registered in that specialty such as an attending physician or consultant. In many jurisdictions, successful completion of such training is a requirement in order to obtain an unrestricted license to practice medicine, and in particular a license to practice a chosen specialty. An individual engaged in such training may be referred to as a resident, registrar or trainee depending on the jurisdiction. Residency training may be followed by fellowship or sub-specialty training.
There are a number of professional degrees in dentistry offered by dental schools in various countries around the world.
Family medicine, or family practice, is a medical specialty devoted to comprehensive health care for people of all ages. The specialist is named a family physician or family doctor. It is often referred to as general practice and a practitioner as a general practice doctor or GP. This name emphasizes the holistic nature of this speciality, as well as its roots in the family. Family practice is a division of primary care that provides continuing and comprehensive health care for the individual and family across all ages, genders, diseases, and parts of the body. Family physicians are often primary care physicians. It is based on knowledge of the patient in the context of the family and the community, emphasizing disease prevention and health promotion. According to the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA), the aim of family medicine is to provide personal, comprehensive, and continuing care for the individual in the context of the family and the community. The issues of values underlying this practice are usually known as primary care ethics.
In the United Kingdom, junior doctors are qualified medical practitioners working whilst engaged in postgraduate training. The period of being a junior doctor starts when they qualify as a medical practitioner following graduation with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery degree and start the UK Foundation Programme, it culminates in a post as a Consultant, a General Practitioner (GP), or some other non-training post, such as a Staff grade or Associate Specialist post.
A senior house officer (SHO) is a non-consultant hospital doctor in the Republic of Ireland. SHOs are supervised in their work by consultants and registrars. In training posts these registrars and consultants oversee training and are usually their designated clinical supervisors.
Medical education in Australia includes the educational activities involved in the initial and ongoing training of Medical Practitioners. In Australia, medical education begins in Medical School; upon graduation it is followed by a period of pre-vocational training including Internship and Residency; thereafter, enrolment into a specialist-vocational training program as a Registrar eventually leads to fellowship qualification and recognition as a fully qualified Specialist Medical Practitioner. Medical education in Australia is facilitated by Medical Schools and the Medical Specialty Colleges, and is regulated by the Australian Medical Council (AMC) and Australian Health Practitioners Regulatory Agency (AHPRA) of which includes the Medical Board of Australia where medical practitioners are registered nationally.
A medical intern is a physician in training who has completed medical school and has a medical degree but does not yet have a license to practice medicine unsupervised. Medical education generally ends with a period of practical training similar to internship, but the way the overall program of academic and practical medical training is structured differs depending upon the country, as does the terminology used.
A medical laboratory scientist (MLS) or clinical laboratory scientist (CLS) or medical technologist (MT) performs diagnostic testing of blood and body fluids in clinical laboratories. The scope of a medical laboratory scientist's work begins with the receipt of patient or client specimens and terminates with the delivery of test results to physicians and other healthcare providers. The utility of clinical diagnostic testing relies squarely on the validity of test methodology. To this end, much of the work done by medical laboratory scientists involves ensuring specimen quality, interpreting test results, data-logging, testing control products, performing calibration, maintenance, validation, and troubleshooting of instrumentation as well as performing statistical analyses to verify the accuracy and repeatability of testing. Medical laboratory scientists may also assist healthcare providers with test selection and specimen collection and are responsible for prompt verbal delivery of critical lab results. An estimated 70% of medical decisions are based on laboratory test results.
Specialist is a military rank in some countries’ armed forces. In the United States Armed Forces, it is one of the four junior enlisted ranks in the U.S. Army, above private (PVT), private (PV2) and private first class and is equivalent in pay grade to corporal, in the U.S. Space Force it consists of the four junior enlisted ranks, prior to the rank of sergeant.
A specialty registrar (StR) is a doctor, public health practitioner or dentist who is working as part of a specialty training programme in the UK. This is known as a training grade as these doctors are supervised to an extent, as part of a structured training experience that leads to being able to undertake independent practice in a hospital specialty or working as a general practitioner.
A clinical officer (CO) is a gazetted officer who is qualified and licensed to practice medicine. In Kenya a clinical officer operates under the jurisdiction of the Clinical Officers Council which is responsible for their training, registration and licensing and each officer must (1) study clinical medicine and surgery for three or four years (2) graduate from an approved medical training institution (3) pass a national government licensing examination (4) complete an internship year at a teaching hospital (5) register as a clinical officer (6) apply for a practicing licence (7) complete a three-year period of clinical supervision under a senior clinical officer or a senior medical officer (8) apply for a practising certificate (optional) which allows one to provide general medical services directly to the public under their own name (9) go into training for specialization (optional) and (10) become a trainer. Clinical Officer (CO) is a protected title and its use by unregistered persons is prohibited by law and punishable by up to five years in jail with or without a fine. Globally, the title may not have legal restrictions and can refer to a job grade rather than a medical qualification such as junior assistive clinical staff, licensed medical professionals or high-level corporate officers, directors, and managers.
In the United States and Canada, there are twelve recognized dental specialties in which some dentists choose to train and practice, in addition to or instead of general dentistry. In the United Kingdom and Australia, there are thirteen.
Healthcare in Belgium is composed of three parts. Firstly there is a primarily publicly funded healthcare and social security service run by the federal government, which organises and regulates healthcare; independent private/public practitioners, university/semi-private hospitals and care institutions. There are a few private hospitals. Secondly is the insurance coverage provided for patients. Finally, industry coverage; which covers the production and distribution of healthcare products for research and development. The primary aspect of this research is done in universities and hospitals.
The nation of Liechtenstein has a universal health care system with decentralized, free market elements through mandated health insurance coverage for every person residing in the country.
