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Preventive Medicine: Preventive Medicine Specialist
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A Preventive Medicine physician may be a specialist in general Preventive Medicine, Public Health, Occupational Medicine or Aerospace Medicine. This specialist works with large population groups as well as with individual patients to promote health and understand the risks of disease, injury, disability and death, seeking to modify and eliminate these risks.
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Job training for a Preventive Medicine Specialist consists of nine weeks of Basic Training, where you'll learn basic Soldiering skills, and 15 weeks of Advanced Individual Training and on-the-job instruction, including practice in testing specimens. Part of this time is spent in the classroom and part in the field. Some of the skills you'll learn are:
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A Preventive Medicine physician who specializes in Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine has expertise in the treatment of decompression illness and diving accident cases. This specialist uses hyperbaric oxygen therapy to treat such conditions as carbon monoxide poisoning, gas gangrene, non-healing wounds, tissue damage from radiation and burns and bone infections. An Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine specialist ... serves as consultant to other physicians in all aspects of hyperbaric chamber operations, and assesses risks and applies appropriate standards to prevent disease and disability in divers and other persons working in altered atmospheric conditions.
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Although immunizations and screening tests remain important preventive services, the most challenging role for preventive medicine specialists lies in altering the lifestyle patterns of patients long before clinical disease develops. Currently, some of the leading causes of death in the United States are heart attacks, cancer, cerebrovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, accidents, and human immunodeficiency virus infections. Almost all ofthese can be prevented (or the risks minimized) by changing lifestyle patterns. Smoking contributes to one out of every five deaths in the USA. It is responsible for a large number of deaths from cancer, coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular disease, and pulmonary diseases. Failure to use safety belts and drunk driving are the major contributors to motor vehicle fatalities.
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The goal of preventive and occupational medicine physicians at Mayo Clinic is to reduce the medical, financial, and occupational burdens of preventable disease and injury through prevention, screening, and education. Specialists are trained in internal medicine or family practice and are committed to providing quality medical care to patients. Several of the specialty's physicians are board-certified in preventive, occupational and/or aviation medicine. There are 22 specialists providing services in Minnesota and three in Arizona.
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The next step in preventive medicine involves counseling. If the person's lifestyle has too many risk factors--such as smoking, over use of alcoholor other drugs, sex with multiple partners, unprotected sex--the physician explains the relationship between the risk factors and disease. The preventivemedicine specialist will then either assist the patient or will direct the patient toward somebody who will help him to acquire the knowledge, motivation, and skills needed to maintain healthful behavior.
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Preventive Medicine Specialist