In late 1980's, the same Royal College of Physicians, London decided that the faculty of Community Medicine will be renamed as faculty of Public Health Medicine. However, this time, most of the countries including India did not follow it.

So, what is Community Medicine?

Community Medicine is a branch of medicine dealing with health care issues affecting communities as a whole- (Oxford Living Dictionary)

Public health services emphasizing preventive medicine and epidemiology for members of a given community- (The American Heritage Medical Dictionary)

A branch of medicine that is concern with the health of the members of a community, municipality, or region. The emphasis in community medicine is on early diagnosis of disease, recognition of environmental and occupational hazards to good health and prevention of disease in the community (Mosby's Medical Dictionary, 9th ed.ition).

We accepted the glamour of the word Community Medicine without bringing any change on the teaching/training and in practice. However, the fact is that as Public Health Physician we have a specialized approach and intent towards the Public health, something unique to our specialty and hence I would like to use the word Public Health in this write up, now onwards.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5561686/


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Public health is defined as “what we as a society do collectively to assure the conditions in which people can be healthy,” according to the 1988 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, The Future of Public Health. Public health efforts have resulted in tremendous improvements in the health of individuals and communities through preventive health services, vaccines, improved sanitation and hygiene, safer workplaces, and enhanced food and drug safety. However, despite the achievements of public health, there is a growing shortage of public health workers, including a critical shortage of public health physicians, and many public health workers are inadequately prepared to face today’s public health challenges.
http://www.nationalacademies.org/hmd/~/media/Files/Report Fi...