A
physician or
doctor is a
professional who practices
medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining, or restoring human
health through the study,
diagnosis, and
treatment of
disease,
injury, and other physical and mental impairments. Physicians may focus their practice on certain disease categories, types of patients, or methods of treatment—known as
specialist medical practitioners—or assume responsibility for the provision of continuing and comprehensive medical care to individuals, families, and communities—known as
general practitioners. 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.