[Social medicine in social work--a key for improving health-related social work]

The relation between social work and social medicine is the subject of this article. Social work is an independent discipline creating its own knowledge in scientific cooperation with other disciplines. Social Medicine is outlined with its special features as a field and as a medical discipline. The traditional relation between social work and the discipline of Social Medicine operates side by side. Since Social Medicine and social work refer to each other, new perspectives for the development of health-related social work arise. Social Medicine appeared in social work can help in elaborating a sociogenetic model of understanding health and illness as well as the development of sociotherapy in social work. Health-related social work will gain more significance in the treatment of health-related and disease-related questions.