Health care

Health care, or healthcare, is the prevention, treatment, and management of illness and the defense of mental and physical well being through the services available by the medical, nursing, and allied health professions. According to the World Health Organization, health care embrace all the goods and services measured to promote health, as well as preventive, curative and palliative interventions, whether going to be individuals or to populations. The organized provision of such services may make up a health care system. This can include an exact governmental organization such as, in the UK, the National Health Service or cooperation across the National Health Service and Social Services as in Shared Care. Before the term "health care" become popular, English-speakers referred to medicine or to the health sector and spoke of the behavior and prevention of illness and disease.