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A doctor, also known as a physician (American English and Canadian English English) or medical practitioner (British English), is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the study, diagnosis, prognosis and therapy of disease, injury, and other physical and mental impairments. Doctors 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.World Health Organization: Classifying health workers . Source: Adapted from International Labour Organization, International Standard Classification of Occupations: ISCO-08 (www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/stat/isco/isco08/index.htm). Medical practice properly requires both a detailed knowledge of the academic disciplines, such as anatomy and physiology, pathophysiology, and their treatment, which is the science of medicine, and a decent competence in its applied practice, which is the art or craft of the profession.
Both the role of doctors and the meaning of the word itself vary around the world. Degrees and other qualifications vary widely, but there are some common elements, such as medical ethics requiring that doctors show consideration, compassion, and benevolence for their patients.
This original use is common in much 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. In such places, the more general terms doctor or medical practitioner are used to describe any person whose practises medicine. In Britain, the use of the term "doctor" for medical practitioners is a courtesy and does not indicate possession of a doctorate; British doctors must have a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery to practise. (2025). 9780198602637, Oxford Univ. Press. ISBN 9780198602637 Community-oriented providers of primary care are called general practitioners, commonly abbreviated to GP.
The vast majority of physicians trained in the United States have a Doctor of Medicine degree, and use the initials M.D. A smaller number attend osteopathic medical schools and have a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree and use the initials D.O. The World Directory of Medical Schools lists both MD and DO granting schools as medical schools located in the United States. After completion of medical school, physicians complete a residency in the specialty in which they will practice. Subspecialties require the completion of a fellowship after residency. Both MD and DO physicians participate in the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) and attend ACGME-accredited residencies and fellowships across all medical specialties to obtain licensure. All boards of certification now require that physicians demonstrate, by examination, continuing mastery of the core knowledge and skills for a chosen specialty. Recertification varies by particular specialty between every seven and every ten years.
In this Western tradition, doctors are considered to be members of a learned profession, and enjoy high social status, often combined with expectations of a high and stable income and job security. However, medical practitioners often work long and inflexible hours, with shifts at unsociable times. Their high status is partly from their extensive training requirements, and also because of their occupation's special Medical ethics and legal duties. The term traditionally used by doctors to describe a person seeking their help is the word patient (although one who visits a doctor for a routine check-up may also be so described). This word is an ancient reminder of medical duty, as it originally meant 'one who suffers'. The English noun comes from the Latin word patiens, the present participle of the deponent verb, , meaning 'I am suffering', and akin to the Ancient Greek verb (romanized: paschein, lit. to suffer) and its cognate noun (, suffering).
In considering these alternate traditions that differ from biomedicine (see above), medical anthropologists emphasize that all ways of thinking about health and disease have a significant cultural content, including conventional western medicine.
Ayurveda, Unani medicine, and homeopathy are popular types of alternative medicine.
Doctors do experience exposure to occupational hazards, and there is a well-known aphorism that "doctors make the worst patients". Causes of death that are shown to be higher in doctors include suicide among doctors and self-inflicted injury, drug-related causes, traffic accidents, and cerebrovascular and ischaemic heart disease. Doctors are also prone to occupational burnout. This manifests as a long-term stress reaction characterized by poorer quality of care towards patients, emotional exhaustion, a feeling of decreased personal achievement, and others. A study by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reported that time pressure was the greatest cause of burnout; a survey from the American Medical Association reported that more than half of all respondents chose "too many bureaucratic tasks" as the leading cause of burnout.
In all developed countries, entry-level medical education programs are tertiary-level courses, undertaken at a medical school attached to a university. Depending on jurisdiction and university, entry may follow directly from secondary school or require pre-requisite undergraduate education. The former commonly takes five or six years to complete. Programs that require previous undergraduate education (typically a three- or four-year degree, often in science) are usually four or five years in length. Hence, gaining a basic medical degree may typically take from five to eight years, depending on jurisdiction and university.
Following the completion of entry-level training, newly graduated medical practitioners are often required to undertake a period of supervised practice before full registration is granted, typically one or two years. This may be referred to as an "medical intern", as the "foundation" years in the UK, or as "conditional registration". Some jurisdictions, including the United States, require residencies for practice.
Medical practitioners hold a medical degree specific to the university from which they graduated. This degree qualifies the medical practitioner to become medical license or registered under the laws of that particular country, and sometimes of several countries, subject to requirements for an internship or conditional registration.
In some jurisdictions such as in Singapore, it is common for medical practitioners to inflate their qualifications with the title "Dr" in correspondence or namecards, even if their qualifications are limited to a basic (e.g., bachelor level) degree. In other countries such as Germany, only medical practioners holding an academic doctorate may call themselves "doctor" – on the other hand, the European Research Council has decided that the German medical doctorate does not meet the international standards of a PhD research degree.
In some countries, including the United Kingdom and Ireland, the medical profession largely regulates itself, with the government affirming the regulating body's authority. The best-known example of this is probably the General Medical Council of Britain. In all countries, the regulating authorities will revoke permission to practice in cases of malpractice or serious misconduct.
In the large English-speaking federations (United States, Canada, Australia), the licensing or registration of medical practitioners is done at a state or provincial level, or nationally as in New Zealand. Australian states usually have a "Medical Board", which has now been replaced by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) in most states, while Canadian provinces usually have a "College of Physicians and Surgeons". All American states have an agency that is usually called the "Medical Board", although there are alternate names such as "Board of Medicine", "Board of Medical Examiners", "Board of Medical Licensure", "Board of Healing Arts" or some other variation. After graduating from a first-professional school, physicians who wish to practice in the US usually take standardized exams, such as the USMLE for a Doctor in Medicine.
Education and training
Medical education and career pathways for doctors vary considerably across the world.
Regulation
In most jurisdictions, doctors need government permission to practice. Such permission is intended to promote public safety, and often to protect government spending, as medical care is commonly subsidized by national governments.
Licensing
Among the English-speaking countries, this process is known either as licensure as in the United States, or as registration in the United Kingdom, other Commonwealth countries, and Ireland. Synonyms in use elsewhere include colegiación in Spain, ishi menkyo in Japan, autorisasjon in Norway, Approbation in Germany, and in Greece. In France, Italy and Portugal, doctors must be members of a national order of medical practitioners.
Performance and professionalism supervision
The issue of , drug abuse, and other issues in a doctors' professional behavior received significant attention across the world, in particular following a critical 2000 reportCommittee on Quality of Health Care in America, Institute of Medicine. (2000). To Err is Human: Building A Safer Health System. National Academies Press. Free full-text . which "arguably launched" the patient-safety movement. In the US, as of 2006 there were few organizations that systematically monitored performance. In the US, only the Department of Veterans Affairs randomly drug tests doctors, in contrast to drug testing practices for other professions that have a major impact on public welfare. Licensing boards at the US state-level depend upon continuing education to maintain competence. Through the use of the National Practitioner Data Bank, Federation of State Medical Boards' disciplinary report, and American Medical Association Physician Profile Service, the 67 State Medical Boards continually self-report any adverse/disciplinary actions taken against a licensed doctor so that the other Medical Boards in which the doctor holds or is applying for a medical license will be properly notified so that corrective, reciprocal action can be taken against the offending doctor. In Europe, as of 2009 the health systems are governed according to various national laws, and can also vary according to regional differences similar to the United States.
See also
Further reading
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