Preventive medicine focuses on the health of individuals and communities in which the goal is to promote health and well-being and prevent disease, disability, and death. Impressive evidence supports the value of clinical preventive medicine, defined as the maintenance and promotion of health and the reduction of risk factors that result in injury and disease. Primary prevention activities deter the occurrence of a disease or adverse event (e.g., smoking cessation). Secondary prevention (screening) is the early detection of a disease or condition in an asymptomatic stage, so treatment delays or impedes the occurrence of symptoms (e.g., mammographic detection of breast cancer). Tertiary prevention attempts aim to restrain and inhibit adverse consequences of existing clinical disease from occurring, (e.g., cardiac rehabilitation), and prevent the recurrence of myocardial infarction.

Preventive services have been shown to decrease morbidity and mortality from both acute and chronic conditions. However, these services are underutilized for various reasons, given the barriers associated with accessing and utilizing these services, which include physician, patient, and health system factors.