Role of science in health

Role of science in health

Health science is the branch of science focused on health, and it includes many subdisciplines. There are two approaches to health science: the study and research of the human body and health-related issues to understand how humans (and animals) function, and the application of that knowledge to improve health and to prevent and cure diseases.




Sources

Health research builds primarily on the basic sciences of biology, chemistry, and physics as well as a variety of multidisciplinary fields (for example medical sociology). Some of the other primarily research-oriented fields that make exceptionally significant contributions to health science are biochemistry, epidemiology, and genetics.



Application

Applied health sciences also endeavor to better understand health, but in addition they try to directly improve it. Some of these are: health education,biomedical engineering, biotechnology, nursing, nutrition, pharmacology, pharmacy, public health (see above), social work, psychology, physical therapy, and medicine. The provision of services to maintain or improve people's health is referred to as health care (see above).