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Prevention in clinical practice
Author(s) -
SansonFisher Robert W,
Bowman Jennifer A,
Leeder Stephen R
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1992.tb139843.x
Subject(s) - medicine , quadrant (abdomen) , general practice , intervention (counseling) , family medicine , health promotion , clinical practice , cancer prevention , cancer screening , nursing , medical education , public health , surgery , cancer
A 45‐year‐old man presents for a heart check. He asks you, his general practitioner, to arrange for a cholesterol measurement, He takes little exercise, does not smoke, is heavy (84 kg; height 176 cm) and his blood pressure at rest, on repeated measurements, is 150/95 mmHg. What will you do in managing him? What gains would you expect to accrue from your intervention? How would these gains compare with those deriving from the use of the same resources (time, dollars and professional expertise) to provide therapeutic (rather than preventive) management for him at a later stage? A 54‐year‐old woman consults you, her usual general practitioner, because she has had a mammogram, arranged through her work, that is reported to reveat a suspicious tesion in the inner, lower quadrant of her left breast. What will you do? Consultations like these are common in clinical practice, as are requests for immunisation, efforts to help smokers to quit, and queries about cervical cancer screening. They raise questions regarding the role of the medical practitioner in disease prevention and health promotion.