Commentary: public health and preventive medicine: proposing a transformed context for medical education and medical care.

Because medical students and residents receive inadequate education and training in public health and preventive medicine, they will miss many opportunities, as they practice medicine, to improve the health of individual patients and populations. Although there is an ongoing need to expand the number and improve the specialist training of public health and preventive medicine residents, all medical students and residents should enter practice with substantive knowledge and practical skills in public health and preventive medicine. This knowledge and these skills will make them more effective in such areas as enabling patients to make lifestyle changes, identifying and reducing occupational and environmental risk factors, and empowering patients to manage their chronic health conditions. The authors propose a paradigm shift to establish public health and preventive medicine as the context for medical education and medical care.