Preventive Medicine for the Doctor in His Community [antikvár]

PREFACEThis book is directed primarily toward the development of a point of view, a philosophy, and a method of approach to health promotion and disease prevention. We have sought to present a way of looking at health and disease which we believe is essential to the conscientious practitioner who wants to give his patients the kind of thoughtful care they are fast learning to expect.As an epidemiologic approach to preventive medicine, designed primarily for those expecting to enter private practice, the book has the following objectives:1.To expand the concept of preventive medicine for wider application.2.To give an understanding of the essentials involved in promoting health and preventing disease.3.To point out the value of practicing medicine with a preventive point of view and to motivate practitioners to incorporate this concept in their practice.4.To develop this philosophy and point of view so as to enable the practitioner to see and appreciate the whole picture of community health activity, realize that the role of the private practitioner in health matters, while essential, is only one of many, and find pleasure in relating his work to the total health job.The original stimulus to produce this book came from many of those familiar with the pedagogic situation who convinced us of the need for a new approach in a textbook of preventive medicine for medical and dental students. The idea of approaching preventive medicine from the standpoint of the natural history of disease appealed to us, and people in many parts of the world have found it useful as presented in the first edition. This viewpoint, in accord with the newer concepts of epidemiology, aims to define the points or levels in the natural history of any disorder of health at which preventive measures may effectively be applied. The newer concepts of epidemiology are concerned with the multiple factors contributing to the natural history of any disorder, so the epidemiologic approach to preventive medicine is a logical one. Furthermore, since disease prevention is a function of medical and dental practitioners in the locales of their practice, we have included a section on organized community health activities, presented from the practitioner's viewpoint.This second edition has been expanded, brought up to date, and re-