Whois & Analysis for usmle.org

The United States Medical Licensing Examination® (USMLE®) is a three-step examination for medical licensure in the United States and is sponsored by the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) and the National Board of Medical Examiners® (NBME®).

Physicians with an M.D.

degree are required to pass this examination before being permitted to practice medicine in the United States; see below for requirements of physicians with a D.O.

degree.

A physician, medical practitioner, medical doctor, or simply doctor is a professional who practises medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining, or restoring health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury, and other physical and mental impairments.

Physicians may focus their practice on certain disease categories, types of patients and methods of treatment—known as specialities—or they may assume responsibility for the provision of continuing and comprehensive medical care to individuals, families, and communities—known as general practice.

Medical practice properly requires both a detailed knowledge of the academic disciplines (such as anatomy and physiology) underlying diseases and their treatment—the science of medicine—and also a decent competence in its applied practice—the art or craft of medicine.

Basic research, also called pure research or fundamental research, is scientific research aimed to improve scientific theories for improved understanding or prediction of natural or other phenomena.

Applied research, in turn, uses scientific theories to develop technology or techniques to intervene and alter natural or other phenomena.

Though often driven by curiosity, basic research fuels applied science's innovations.

The two aims are often coordinated in research and development.

Health is the level of functional and metabolic efficiency of a living organism.

In humans it is the ability of individuals or communities to adapt and self-manage when facing physical, mental or social changes.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defined health in its broader sense in its 1948 constitution as "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." This definition has been subject to controversy, in particular as lacking operational value, the ambiguity in developing cohesive health strategies, and because of the problem created by use of the word "complete".

Other definitions have been proposed, among which a recent definition that correlates health and personal satisfaction.

A disease is a particular abnormal condition, a disorder of a structure or function, that affects part or all of an organism.

The study of disease is called pathology which includes the study of cause.

Disease is often construed as a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs.

It may be caused by external factors such as pathogens, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions particularly of the immune system such as an immunodeficiency, or a hypersensitivity including allergies and autoimmunity.