Sunday, February 04, 2018

Quaternary prevention



reviewing the concept


Quaternary prevention aims to protect patients from medical harm

Background: According to the Wonca International Dictionary for
General/Family Practice Quaternary Prevention is defined as:
 ‘Action taken to identify patient at risk of overmedicalization,
to protect him from new medical invasion, and to suggest to him
interventions, which are ethically acceptable.’ The concept of
quaternary prevention was initially proposed by Marc Jamoulle
and the targets were mainly patients with illness but without a disease.
Objectives: The purpose of this opinion article is to open the debate
around a new possible definition and a new conceptual model of
quaternary prevention based on the belief that quaternary prevention
should be present in physicians’ minds for every intervention they
suggest to a patient.
Discussion: The debate around quaternary prevention is vital in the
context of contemporary medicine and has expanded worldwide.
The human being may suffer harm from medical interventions from
conception, during their childhood, during their entire healthy
lifetime as well as during a self-limited disease, a chronic disease,
or a terminal disease. The current definition of quaternary prevention
has limitations because it excludes patients and medical interventions
where a quaternary prevention perspective would be needed and
useful to protect patients from harm. In this context, a new definition
and conceptual model of quaternary prevention is proposed.
Conclusion: In this new proposal, quaternary prevention is defined
as an ‘action taken to protect individuals (persons/patients) from
medical interventions that are likely to cause more harm than good.’

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