Health Medicine

For almost two centuries, disease-treatment medicine has dominated healthcare. This has resulted in many benefits, especially for acute infections, injuries, acute life-threatening disease, congenital malformations, etc. However, we have also seen a parallel and relentless increase in chronic disease. In fact, we now suffer the highest burden of virtually every chronic disease in every age group ever in human history. Why? It is not because disease-treatment medicine is wrong, but rather because it is incomplete. Today's healthcare is missing health care and is focused almost solely on disease. Through recorded history, there has been an ongoing philosophical dynamic between treating disease vs promoting health. Dominance by either side is insufficient. This editorial explores Health Medicine and why embracing this concept is critical for solving our healthcare crisis. It is organized as follows: a brief review of history, the rationale for "Health" medicine, what defines it, why organizing under it is important, how an optimal system could be organized, and the potential response of conventional medicine.