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Public Health Physician - Career Profile |
Career OverviewPublic health physicians are relatively new phenomena of the medical profession. Their specialization is the promotion of public health, the health of communities, through education, access to low cost or free health care, and effective general policies for disease prevention and containment.
Most public health physicians work for government agencies or local private health care organizations. Their function may be to develop policies to contain infectious diseases such as HIV or the Nile Virus or they may be responsible for making policies to determine what physical conditions should preclude a person from being allowed to drive.
In general, the role of the public health physician is to promote the public’s health by practice of public medicine. They do not tend to practice medicine in the same way as other physicians for this reason. Their focus tends to be upon researching causes of disease and treatments to determine the best application for public health.
They may make assessments of policies to vaccinate infants and children, for example, weighing evidence as to the best times for vaccinations to be administered to maintain the lowest possible risk of side effects. They make review policies to provide free health advice and free clinics for specific issues such as family planning and HIV testing.
Public medicine physicians can also play a vital role in the management of public health policies relating to health insurance, home and work environment regulations, and sanitation issues.
They typically play a very central role as educators, often supervising the publication of materials such as pamphlets, brochures, letters, and posters to provide the public with guidance and vital information about health issues.
As the health care system looks set to change over the next decade, public health physicians are likely to have a central role in orchestrating the changes in policy that will occur to facilitate the best possible use of resources at the lowest cost. At present, the cost of providing health care far exceeds the available budget and hospitals, in particular, are under considerable stress to cut back on spending.
In the future, it is expected that nurses and medical assistances will have more substantial roles in providing routine care to patients, and overall, specialist trained physicians will be preferred to general practitioners. Patients will also spend less time in hospital and focus will shift to providing outpatient care of the highest quality to those recovering from surgeries, illness, or injuries that necessitated hospitalization for a period.
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Career RequirementsA public health physician must fulfil the education and experience requirements established by federal and state government to practice medicine.
For entry into any education program to become a specialist in public health, a doctor of medicine degree is required from an approved school of medicine. It is often mandatory that candidates complete at least one year of graduate medical education in public health before practicing independently.
To work as a public health physician, an individual must complete four years of medical school, a one-year internship, and three years of residency.
Due to the vastness and diversity of the practical knowledge required to perform as a public health physician, rotations in different areas of medical practice and internships in these areas are vital to professional development.
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Job OutlookThe health care system of the United States is under growing pressures to meet demands of a large patient population with minimal resources. Although the system and the field of medicine are already evolving to meet these demands, the need to coordinate and improve public health on a broad scale remains apparent and real.
The public health sector looks set to remain particularly lucrative, dynamic, and open to qualified and enthusiastic graduates of medical schools. It offers qualified physicians the opportunity to work in a general way to improve health by implementing policies and developing educational information to improve public awareness of health risks and preventive methods of health care.
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Career TrackThe career track of every public health physician varies but there are ample opportunities to apply the practice of public health care in different professional settings and to achieve a range of personal career objectives.
Public health care physicians can operate on a local, a national, or an international level, depending on their interests and where they work. Health care organizations like the Red Cross and the World Health Organization hire public health physicians to assist them in achieving their goals of promoting health on a global scale.
The expertise of public health care physicians are as useful for setting and implementing general health care policies as they are for planning for and acting in the face of a crisis that creates a sizeable public health risk.
Career tracks for public health physicians can lead to positions of seniority in local, national, and international health care organizations depending on experience and qualifications.
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CompensationThe average reported salary for a typical public health physician in the United States is approximately $180,000 per year. Depending upon their qualifications and experience, most public health physicians in the United States earn between $135,000 and $200,000 per year.
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