Medical doctor
Health professional who practices medicine to promote and restore health.
Last updated
A medical doctor is a professional who practices medicine, applying knowledge of medical sciences like anatomy and physiology to treat patients.[1] The term "physician" originally meant a practitioner who treats with drugs, in contrast to a surgeon who uses manual procedures.[2] Medical practitioners can choose to work in general practice, delivering ongoing and complete care to individuals and families, or they can specialize in particular disease categories, patient types, or treatment methods.[1]
Last updated 2026-10-07 from the source article.
Quick Facts
- Field
- Medicine
- Role
- Health professional
- Ethics
- Consideration
- compassion
- and benevolence for patients
Facts from the source article.
Key facts and history
A Middle English quotation from as early as 1400 contrasts a "cirugian" and a physician.[3] Henry VIII granted a charter to the London Royal College of Physicians in 1518.[3] The vast majority of physicians trained in the United States have a Doctor of Medicine degree and use the initials M.D.[4] The term "physician" in English has existed for at least nine centuries, and historically physicians and surgeons belonged to distinct professions that were traditionally in competition.[2]
Members of the American Medical Association, which was founded in 1847, are described using the term physician.[5] Over a quarter of all physicians practicing in the United States completed their medical education abroad, and among internal medicine specialists, more than one-third are international medical graduates.[6]
What the cited sources add
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reported that time pressure was the greatest cause of burnout among doctors.[7][8] Burned-out doctors are more likely to leave practice, reducing patients’ access to and continuity of care.[7] When lower quality care was seen, investigators found it was the organization that burned doctors out that led to lower quality care, rather than the burned-out doctors themselves.[7] "Physician friendly" and "family friendly" organizational settings result in greater physician well-being, according to an AHRQ-funded study.[7]
Implementing a Patient-Centered Medical Home can improve physician satisfaction and reduce burnout.[7] After implementing the Patient-Centered Medical Home, rates of reported burnout decreased from 32.7 to 25.8 percent.[7]
References
- Wikipedia, "Medical doctor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: World Health Organization: Classifying health workers . Source: Adapted from International Labour Organization, International Standard Classification of Occupat (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Medical doctor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: H.W. Fowler, "A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (Wordsworth Collection)", NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company, 1994 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Medical doctor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Brown, Lesley, "The New shorter Oxford English dictionary on historical principles", Clarendon, 2002 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Medical doctor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Medline Plus, "Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine", U.S. National Library of Medicine of National Institutes of Health, 2012 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Medical doctor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Policy Finder AMA", policysearch.ama-assn.org (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Medical doctor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Foreign-Trained Physicians in the United States: A Descriptive Profile", Medical Care Research and Review, 3 February 2022; "Non–US-Born Physicians in the US Internal Medicine Workforce", JAMA, 12 August 2026 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "Physician Burnout", Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, July 2017. facts only, no text reused. ahrq.gov
- Wikipedia, "Medical doctor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Physician Burnout", Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, July 2017; Berg, "Physician burnout: It's not you, it's your medical specialty", American Medical Association, 3 August 2018 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Medical doctor (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Medical doctor (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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