Medical microbiology is a branch of medical science that is concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of infectious diseases. It is a large subset of microbiology that is applied to medicine. Medical microbiology studies the characteristics of pathogens, their modes of transmission, mechanisms of infection, and growth. The field of medical microbiology is concerned with four kinds of microorganisms that cause infectious diseases: bacteria, fungi, parasites, and viruses, and one type of infectious protein called prion. Medical microbiologists also study the clinical applications of microbes for the improvement of health.
Medical microbiology involves the identification of microorganisms for the diagnosis of infectious diseases and the assessment of likely response to specific antimicrobial agents. Medical microbiologists collaborate with hospital infection control teams and estates departments to reduce the spread of nosocomial infections. They also monitor patterns of infectious disease incidence in the community and globally.
Medical microbiology is not only about diagnosing and treating disease, but it also involves the study of beneficial microbes. Microbes have been shown to be helpful in combating infectious disease and promoting health.
Medical microbiology is a unique field that crosses both clinical and anatomic pathologies, specifically infectious disease pathology. Often, the specialists in the field are PhDs as opposed to MDs. As a result, a medically-trained pathologist with a microbiology fellowship is in a unique position to understand both what’s going on in the laboratory and the clinical side of infectious disease, versus just the laboratory like PhDs and just the clinical side like the infectious disease physicians.
Medical microbiology interacts with a wide range of healthcare providers, including clinicians from medical technologists on the bench and pharmacists to infectious disease attendings and fellows, pulmonologists, neurosurgeons, and other pathologists. Medical microbiology pairs well with anatomic pathology and cytology, as they involve a lot of microbiology and span both AP and CP. Molecular pathology, gastrointestinal subspecialty for AP, and even immunology are also potential subspecialties that could pair well with medical microbiology.
In summary, medical microbiology is a branch of medical science that studies microorganisms that cause infectious diseases and their clinical applications. It involves the identification of microorganisms for the diagnosis of infectious diseases and the assessment of likely response to specific antimicrobial agents. Medical microbiology is a unique field that crosses both clinical and anatomic pathologies, and it interacts with a wide range of healthcare providers.
