This is the result of history and is often confusing. In modern English, the term physician is used in two main ways, with relatively broad and narrow meanings respectively. The term may be used by state medical boards in the United States, and by equivalent bodies in Canadian provinces, to describe any medical practitioner.įurther information: Physicians in the United States and Physicians in Canada This usage still shows the original meaning of physician and preserves the old difference between a physician, as a practitioner of physic, and a surgeon. In Commonwealth countries, specialist pediatricians and geriatricians are also described as specialist physicians who have sub-specialized by age of patient rather than by organ system.Īround the world, the combined term "physician and surgeon" is used to describe either a general practitioner or any medical practitioner irrespective of specialty.
In such places, the more general English terms doctor or medical practitioner are prevalent, describing any practitioner of medicine (whom an American would likely call a physician, in the broad sense). This original use, as distinct from surgeon, is common in most of the world including the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries (such as Australia, Bangladesh, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Zimbabwe), as well as in places as diverse as Brazil, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Ireland, and Taiwan. Such 'hospitalists' now make up about 19% of all US general internists, who are often called general physicians in Commonwealth countries. Another term, hospitalist, was introduced in 1996, to describe US specialists in internal medicine who work largely or exclusively in hospitals. Hence, in the 16th century, physic meant roughly what internal medicine does now.Ĭurrently, a specialist physician in the United States may be described as an internist.
Newer universities would probably describe such an academic as a professor of internal medicine. In the same year, the English monarch established the Regius Professorship of Physic at the University of Cambridge. It was not until 1540 that he granted the Company of Barber-Surgeons (ancestor of the Royal College of Surgeons) its separate charter. Henry VIII granted a charter to the London Royal College of Physicians in 1518. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, gives a Middle English quotation making this contrast, from as early as 1400: "O Lord, whi is it so greet difference betwixe a cirugian and a physician." This term is at least nine hundred years old in English: physicians and surgeons were once members of separate professions, and traditionally were rivals. This meaning of physician conveys a sense of expertise in treatment by drugs or medications, rather than by the procedures of surgeons. Degrees and other qualifications vary widely, but there are some common elements, such as medical ethics requiring that physicians show consideration, compassion, and benevolence for their patients.Īround the world the term physician refers to a specialist in internal medicine or one of its many sub-specialties (especially as opposed to a specialist in surgery). Medical practice properly requires both a detailed knowledge of the academic disciplines, such as anatomy and physiology, underlying diseases and their treatment-the science of medicine-and also a decent competence in its applied practice-the art or craft of medicine.īoth the role of the physician and the meaning of the word itself vary around the world. Physicians may focus their practice on certain disease categories, types of patients, and methods of treatment-known as specialities-or they may assume responsibility for the provision of continuing and comprehensive medical care to individuals, families, and communities-known as general practice.
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Not to be confused with physicist, a scientist who studies or researches physics.Ī physician ( American English), medical practitioner ( Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the study, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of disease, injury, and other physical and mental impairments.