Preventive Medicine Physicians

What Does a Preventive Medicine Physicians Do?

Apply knowledge of general preventive medicine and public health issues to promote health care to groups or individuals, and aid in the prevention or reduction of risk of disease, injury, disability, or death. May practice population-based medicine or diagnose and treat patients in the context of clinical health promotion and disease prevention.

Day-to-Day Responsibilities

• 1Direct or manage prevention programs in specialty areas such as aerospace, occupational, infectious disease, and environmental medicine.
• 2Document or review comprehensive patients' histories with an emphasis on occupation or environmental risks.
• 3Identify groups at risk for specific preventable diseases or injuries.
• 4Perform epidemiological investigations of acute and chronic diseases.
• 5Supervise or coordinate the work of physicians, nurses, statisticians, or other professional staff members.
• 6Design or use surveillance tools, such as screening, lab reports, and vital records, to identify health risks.
• 7Direct public health education programs dealing with topics such as preventable diseases, injuries, nutrition, food service sanitation, water supply safety, sewage and waste disposal, insect control, and immunizations.
• 8Evaluate the effectiveness of prescribed risk reduction measures or other interventions.

Required Skills

• Reading Comprehension
• Critical Thinking
• Active Listening
• Speaking
• Monitoring
• Writing
• Active Learning
• Learning Strategies
• Science
• Biostatistical software
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Epi Info
• Database software
• Email software
• Epidemiological software
• Insightful S-PLUS
• Medical surveillance software
• Microsoft Access
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Office software