The Bigger Picture of Health: It’s More Than Just Medicine! 🏥🌍

In clinical practice, it is easy to focus solely on diagnosing and treating disease. But have you considered the bigger picture? This image highlights the Social Determinants of Health—the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age.

🔸 Individual Factors – Age, sex, and genetics play a role, but they don’t tell the full story.

🔸 Lifestyle Choices & Social Networks – Our behaviours and community connections impact our well-being.

🔸 Living & Working Conditions – Education, employment, housing, access to healthcare, clean water, and food security all shape our health outcomes.

🔸 Socioeconomic, Cultural, and Environmental Conditions – These broader factors, like economic stability and public policies, influence everyone’s opportunities for a healthy life.

It’s easy to prescribe medications, but real impact often starts with understanding and addressing the social factors that shape our patients' health.

💡 As a future doctor, how will you address social determinants in your clinical practice?