A physician, medical practitioner, 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. 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. 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.
In the medical profession, a general practitioner (GP) or family physician is a physician who treats acute and chronic illnesses and provides preventive care and health education to patients of all ages. GPs' duties are not confined to specific fields of medicine, and they have particular skills in treating people with multiple health issues. They are trained to treat patients to levels of complexity that vary between countries. The term "primary care physician" is more usually used in the US. In Asian countries like India, this term has been replaced mainly by Medical Officers, Registered Medical Practitioner etc.
The Royal College of Surgeons of England is an independent professional body and registered charity that promotes and advances standards of surgical care for patients, and regulates surgery and dentistry in England and Wales. The college is located at Lincoln's Inn Fields in London. It publishes multiple medical journals including the Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the Faculty Dental Journal, and the Bulletin of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
A number of professional degrees in dentistry are offered by dental schools in various countries around the world.
The Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI), is an Irish professional body dedicated to improving the practice of general medicine and related medical specialities, chiefly through the accreditation of physicians by examination.
A medical specialty is a branch of medical practice that is focused on a defined group of patients, diseases, skills, or philosophy. Examples include those branches of medicine that deal exclusively with children (paediatrics), cancer (oncology), laboratory medicine (pathology), or primary care. After completing medical school or other basic training, physicians or surgeons and other clinicians usually further their medical education in a specific specialty of medicine by completing a multiple-year residency to become a specialist.
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) is the professional body for general practitioners (GPs) in Australia. The RACGP is responsible for maintaining standards for quality clinical practice, education and training, and research in Australian general practice. The RACGP represents over 40,000 members across metropolitan, urban, rural and remote Australia.
The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow is an institute of physicians and surgeons in Glasgow, Scotland.
The Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England is an independent UK professional body committed to enabling dental specialists to provide patients with the highest possible standards of practice and care. The faculty is an integral part of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and is located at the College's headquarters in Lincoln's Inn Fields in London.
Sir Graeme Robertson Dawson Catto FRSE, Hon FRCSE, FRCP(Lon, Edin & Glasg), FRCGP, FFPM, FAoP, FMedSci FKC is a Scottish doctor who was president, later chair, of the General Medical Council until April 2009. He is also currently Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the Universities of London and Aberdeen and was an honorary consultant nephrologist at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
In the United Kingdom, some Commonwealth realms and Ireland, a medical royal college is a professional body in the form of a royal college responsible for the development of and training in one or more medical specialities.
The Alcohol Health Alliance UK (AHA) is a coalition of more than 60 non-governmental organisations which work together to promote evidence-based policies to reduce the harm caused by alcohol.
The Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine (FPM) is a faculty of the three Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom. It is a UK-based professional membership organisation with 1,600 members; physicians with a professional interest in the speciality of pharmaceutical medicine, the science of discovering, developing and testing new drugs, their regulation, and monitoring them for safety both during development and when they are prescribed. FPM is a registered charity and ultimately exists to bring about an improvement in health in patients and the general population.
John Oldroyd Forfar, MC, FRSE was a Scottish paediatrician and academic. He served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the Second World War and later became a leading civilian paediatrician. He was Professor of Child Life and Health at the University of Edinburgh from 1964 to 1982. He was President of the British Paediatric Association from 1985 to 1988, and was instrumental in the founding of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
Sir Terence John Stephenson, is a Northern Irish consultant paediatric doctor and chair of the Health Research Authority (HRA). He is also the Nuffield Professor of Child Health at University College London (UCL). Stephenson was most notable for guiding the RCPCH in agreeing 10 published national standards, Facing the Future: Standards for Paediatric Services. This was the first time the College committed publicly to a defined set of standards for all children receiving inpatient care or assessment across the UK.
Dame Caroline Jan MacEwen, known as Carrie MacEwen, is a British ophthalmology consultant who has served as the chair of the General Medical Council (GMC) since May 2022. She was previously acting chair of the GMC between August 2021 and May 2022, the chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges between 2017 and 2020 and the president of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists (RCOphth) between 2014 and 2017.
The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and Faculties in Scotland is commonly known as the "Scottish Academy", but is not to be confused with the Royal Scottish Academy, which promotes contemporary Scottish art.
The Forum of Irish Postgraduate Medical Training Bodies is a medical education body in Ireland. It was established in December 2006 with the stated aim of coordinating the activities of the postgraduate medical colleges of Ireland and their faculties, in order to improve standards of medical education and training.
The Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons is a National Postgraduate Medical College established to train specialist doctors in medicine, surgery and other related disciplines by an Act of parliament in 2003.
