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Preventative medicine
Preventative medicine aims to stop illness before it starts, or to catch it early.
Summary
- Primary prevention stops disease from developing, as vaccination and stopping smoking do.
- Secondary prevention finds disease early through screening, such as cervical and bowel screening.
- Tertiary prevention limits the damage of an established illness, as cardiac rehabilitation does.
- Moving from sickness to prevention is one of the three shifts in the 10 Year Health Plan for England, published in July 2025.
Interview questions
- Why is prevention better than cure?
- Should the government tax unhealthy food?
- Is it the doctor's job to tell patients how to live?
Practise answering these with a mentor
Our interview preparation has you answer questions like these out loud, with feedback on each answer.
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More NHS hot topics, medical ethics case studies and medical school interview questions are in AlphaMED Resources, which we add to and update through the application cycle.