[[Image:BloodPressure2.jpg|130px|Physician examining a patient.]]</div><div style="float:left;margin-right:0.9em">
[[Image:Rod_of_asclepius.png|50px]]</div>'''Medicine''' is the branch of [[health science]] and the sector of public life concerned with maintaining or restoring [[human]] [[health]] through the study, diagnosis and treatment of [[disease]] and [[injury]]. It is both an ''area of knowledge'' — a [[science]] of [[body]] [[organ system|systems]], their diseases and treatment — and the ''applied practice'' — an [[art]] or [[craft]] — of that knowledge. However, ''medicine'' often refers more specifically to matters dealt with by [[physician]]s and [[surgery|surgeons]].
Medicine is both an area of knowledge (a [[science]]), and the application of that knowledge (by the medical profession and other health professionals such as nurses). The various specialized branches of the science of medicine correspond to the equally specialized medical professions dealing with particular organs or diseases. The [[science]] of medicine is the knowledge of body systems and diseases, while the [[profession]] of medicine refers to the social structure of the group of people formally trained to apply that knowledge to treat disease.
Medicine comprises various specialized sub-branches, such as [[cardiology]], [[pulmonology]], [[neurology]], or other fields such as sports medicine, research or public health.
"Medicine" is also often used amongst medical professionals as shorthand for [[internal medicine]]. [[Veterinary medicine]] is the practice of health care in [[animal]] [[species]] other than human beings.
<div class="noprint" style="text-align:right;margin-right:10px;margin-bottom:4px;">'''[[Medicine|More about Medicine...]]'''</div >
