Question

Compare the medical approach with the public health approach to saving lives from cancer. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each approach?

Answer 1

The medical approach has the ultimate goal of curing patients on the individual basis, as opposed to the public health approach, which diagnoses the community to prevent diseases. With cancer, there isn’t a single approach that causes it. It can arise from a plethora of risks such as chemicals, diet, lifestyle, etc. The advantage of using the medical approach is that since cancer is so hard to trace for prevention, when it happens, the medicine is able to cure symptoms and help a patient on an individual basis, which is a plus because cancer patients are unique in how they came to have it. The disadvantage to this is that the medical approach is not always successful in treating a patient and they may die nevertheless. The public health approach has an advantage in that it aims to minimize the risk factors related to cancer, but it has a disadvantage in that even if risks are minimized, there is still a chance for people to get cancer since there are so many things that can cause it. I believe both ways has its own cons, so it’s hard to say which is the best approach.