Preventive healthcare

Preventive healthcare aims to prevent disease, detect health problems early, and reduce the risk of illness or complications through clinical services and health measures.

Vaccination: The administration of a vaccine to stimulate protective immunity against a disease. Vaccination prevents infections before they cause illness and can reduce transmission across populations.
Primary prevention: Measures taken before disease begins to reduce the chance that it will occur. Vaccines and risk-reduction measures act before a condition develops.
Evidence-based medicine: Clinical practice that integrates research evidence, professional expertise, and patient values. Preventive recommendations rely on evidence about benefits, harms, and uncertainty.
Curative medicine: Healthcare focused on treating disease with the aim of curing it or resolving its effects. It addresses established illness, whereas prevention seeks to avert illness or reduce its future impact.
Cancer screening: Testing people without symptoms to find cancer or precancerous changes at an earlier stage. Screening can identify certain cancers before symptoms appear, when treatment may be more effective.
Secondary prevention: Early detection and treatment intended to halt or slow disease before symptoms or complications arise. Screening belongs here because it looks for disease before it becomes clinically apparent.
Sensitivity and specificity: Measures of how well a test identifies people with and without a condition. These test properties shape the false-positive and false-negative results of screening.
Palliative care: Care that relieves suffering and supports quality of life during serious illness. Its primary aim is symptom relief and quality of life, not disease prevention.
Prenatal care: Healthcare provided during pregnancy to monitor maternal and fetal health and address risks. Regular pregnancy care detects complications early and supports health before birth.
Tertiary prevention: Measures that limit complications and disability after a disease has developed. Rehabilitation and complication management extend prevention beyond avoiding initial illness.

Linked from 6 pages