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Medical providers (professionals who deal with patients) may be physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, physical therapists, nurses and other licensed professionals who operate in a clinic or independently. Health care or healthcare practitioners work to prevent, treat and manage illnesses and preserve well-being, both mental and physical, through the services offered by the medical, nursing, and allied health professions.
The health care industry is one of the world's largest and fastest-growing industries. $7,500 per year is spent on health care in the United States in 2007 -- a total of 20 percent of all domestic spending. Costs will almost double over the next 10 years.
Western medicine is usually practiced by MD medical doctors, or under their supervision. These traditions developed in the Western world beginning in the early Renaissance (around 1450). "Medicine" may also be shorthand usage to mean internal medicine. Veterinary medicine is health care for animals other than human beings.
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Historical health care providers. German engraving from 1682.
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