Preventive medicine

Preventive medicine uses interventions before illness occurs to prevent disease, detect it early, or reduce its likelihood and consequences.

Primary prevention: Measures that prevent disease from developing by reducing risk or exposure. It acts before disease begins, through measures such as vaccination and risk reduction.
Immunization: The process of becoming protected against an infectious disease, usually through vaccination or prior infection. Immunization programs prevent infections and reduce their spread across populations.
Herd immunity: Indirect protection from an infectious disease that occurs when enough people in a population are immune. High vaccination coverage can protect people who remain susceptible or cannot be vaccinated.
Curative medicine: Medical care aimed at curing or controlling an existing disease. It typically responds to illness already present rather than preventing its onset.
Evidence-based medicine: The conscientious use of current best evidence alongside clinical expertise and patient values in health decisions. Prevention depends on weighing trial evidence, likely benefits, harms, and preferences.
Secondary prevention: Measures that detect disease early and enable intervention before it causes substantial harm. Screening identifies disease or risk markers in people without symptoms.
Cancer screening: Testing people without symptoms to detect cancer or precancerous changes. It applies secondary prevention to cancers for which early detection can improve outcomes.
Lead-time bias: An apparent increase in survival time caused by earlier diagnosis without delaying death. It can make screening appear beneficial even when outcomes do not improve.
Palliative care: Care that relieves suffering and improves quality of life during serious illness. Its primary aim is symptom relief, not preventing disease from occurring.
Overdiagnosis: Detection of a condition that would never have caused symptoms or harm during a person's lifetime. Its frequency complicates decisions about whether and how often to screen.

Linked from 14 pages