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Preventive Medicine is a different type of medical specialty for many reasons beyond the fact that it has a uniquely non-descriptive name.

The American Board of Preventive Medicine (ABPM) defines the discipline as "that specialty of medical practice which focuses on the health of individuals and defined populations in order to protect, promote, and maintain health and well-being and prevent disease, disability, and premature death." 

The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), in the meantime, describes the distinctive activities of Preventive Medicine as the application of biostatistics and epidemiology, health services management and administration, control and prevention of environmental and occupational factors, clinical preventive medicine activities, and assessment of social, cultural, and behavioral influences on health.

Even these broad definitions might not cover the entire field of Preventive Medicine.  If you ask three practicing Preventive Medicine specialists, you are likely to get three different definitions of Preventive Medicine. There is no true consensus definition of Preventive Medicine, in part because it consists of three specialties that are relatively different from each other.

Preventive Medicine is:

1. Aerospace Medicine (AM)
2. Occupational Medicine (OM)
3. Public Health and General Preventive Medicine (PH/GPM)

Aerospace Medicine focuses on the health aspects of air and space flight, with many practitioners involved in military roles.  Occupational Medicine addresses work-related illness and disease, including toxic exposures and workforce health maintenaince.  Public Health and General Preventive Medicine is primarily concerned with promoting and maintaining community health, including issues such as immunizations and food and water safety (source: ACGME).

A different way to define Preventive Medicine is to divide the entire field into two broad groups: clinical and non-clinical Preventive Medicine. Doctors who work in clinical Preventive Medicine see patients on a daily basis and may provide services in screening, health counseling, and immunization. This can include diabetics, smokers, cardiac patients, and others who can benefit from prevention and lifestyle modification. 

Non-clinical Preventive Medicine may include health policy, social and behavioral aspects of health and disease, epidemiology, or other areas in which individual patients are not the primary daily focus. Many Preventive Medicine physicians do both clinical and non-clinical activities. 

So, depending on whom you ask -- based on a particular specialty or the level of involvement in clinical and non-clinical acitivities -- you will get quite a different perspective on Preventive Medicine. This website is written primarily from the perspective of Public Health / General Preventive Medicine, but it is intended as a resource for medical students and residency applicants interested in all aspects of Preventive Medicine.