Secondary care is care provided by medical specialists and other health professionals who generally do not have first contact with patients, for example, cardiologists, urologists and dermatologists. A patient reaches secondary care as a next step from primary care, typically by provider referral although sometimes by patient self-initiative. According to a systematic review, fields for development secondary care from patients' viewpoint may be classified into four domains that should usefully guide future improvement of this care stage: "barriers to care, communication, coordination, and relationships and personal value".[8]
Tertiary care is specialized consultative care, usually for inpatients and on referral from a primary or secondary health professional, in a facility that has personnel and facilities for advanced medical investigation and treatment, such as a tertiary referral hospital.
Follow-up care is additional care during or after convalescence. Aftercare is generally synonymous with follow-up care. One of the key areas of development–Tele-health, including non-clinical services: provider training, administrative meetings, and continuing medical education–offers opportunities to improve access to care, increase provider and patient productivity through reduced travel, potential expenses savings, and the ability to expand services.[9]
End-of-life care is care near the end of one's life. It often includes the following:
Palliative care is supportive care, most especially (but not necessarily) near the end of life.
Hospice care is palliative care very near the end of life when cure is very unlikely. Its main goal is comfort, both physical and mental. A systematic meta review showed that the most cost-efficient one relates to home-based end-of-life care, including reduced overall "resource use and improved patient and carer outcomes".[10]
Lines of therapy
Treatment decisions often follow formal or informal algorithmic guidelines. Treatment options can often be ranked or prioritized into lines of therapy: first-line therapy, second-line therapy, third-line therapy, and so on. First-line therapy (sometimes referred to as induction therapy, primary therapy, or front-line therapy)[11] is the first therapy that will be tried. Its priority over other options is usually either: (1) formally recommended on the basis of clinical trial evidence for its best-available combination of efficacy, safety, and tolerability or (2) chosen based on the clinical experience of the physician. If a first-line therapy either fails to resolve the issue or produces intolerable side effects, additional (second-line) therapies may be substituted or added to the treatment regimen, followed by third-line therapies, and so on.
An example of a context in which the formalization of treatment algorithms and the ranking of lines of therapy is very extensive is chemotherapy regimens. Because of the great difficulty in successfully treating some forms of cancer, one line after another may be tried. In oncology the count of therapy lines may reach 10 or even 20.
Often multiple therapies may be tried simultaneously (combination therapy or polytherapy). Thus combination chemotherapy is also called polychemotherapy, whereas chemotherapy with one agent at a time is called single-agent therapy or monotherapy. Single-agent therapy is a care algorithm that focuses on one specific drug or procedure. It utilizes a single therapeutic agent rather than combining multiple ones.[12] Multiagent Therapy is a treatment by two or more drugs or procedures. Comprehensive therapy combines various forms of medical treatment to provide the most effective care for patients.[13]
Noninvasive therapies are medical treatments that do not involve entry into the body. It can be classified into five main categories: neurotherapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, radiation therapy, and psychotherapy.[19] The latest trend in noninvasive therapy is remote treatment, which is experiencing significant global growth via telecommunication technologies. Teletherapy encompasses three practices of remote treatment: telepsychiatry, telepsychology, and teleneurotherapy.[20] This approach to medical treatment uses telecommunication technologies to provide exclusively mental[21][22] or neurological therapy at a distance.[20][23][24][25]
By therapy composition
Treatments can be classified according to the method of treatment:
^ Eskinazi, D., Mindes, J. (2001). 「代替医療:定義、範囲、そして課題」アジア太平洋バイオテクノロジーニュース、5(01)、19-25。
^ Buttorff, C., Heins, SE & Al-Ibrahim, H. 医療保険請求における緊急医療センターの特定に関する定義の比較. Health Serv Outcomes Res Method 21, 229–237 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10742-020-00224-6
^ Hansoti, B., Aluisio, AR, Barry, MA, Davey, K., Lentz, BA, Modi, P., ... & Global Emergency Medicine Think Tank Clinical Research Working Group. (2017). グローバルヘルスと救急医療:臨床研究の優先順位の定義. Academic Emergency Medicine, 24(6), 742–753.
^ Friedlander, David F.; Krimphove, Marieke J.; Cole, Alexander P.; Marchese, Maya; Lipsitz, Stuart R.; Weissman, Joel S.; Schoenfeld, Andrew J.; Ortega, Gezzer; Trinh, Quoc-Dien (2021年5月). 「外来手術と入院手術の価値はどこにあるのか?」Annals of Surgery . 273 (5): 909– 916. doi :10.1097/SLA.0000000000003578. PMID 31460878.
^ Senbekov, Maksut; Saliev, Timur; Bukeyeva, Zhanar; Almabayeva, Aigul; Zhanaliyeva, Marina; Aitenova, Nazym; Toishibekov, Yerzhan; Fakhradiyev, Ildar (2020年12月3日). 「医療におけるデジタル技術の最近の進歩と応用:レビュー」. International Journal of Telemedicine and Applications . 2020 : 1– 18. doi : 10.1155/2020/8830200 . PMC 7732404. PMID 33343657 .
^ Cousins, Sian; Blencowe, Natalie S; Blazeby, Jane M (2019年7月). 「侵襲的処置とは何か? 研究デザイン、エビデンス統合、研究追跡のための定義」BMJ Open . 9 (7) e028576. doi :10.1136/bmjopen-2018-028576. PMC 6678000. PMID 31366651 .
^ Klein, Eran (2023年9月). 「医療機器を侵襲的と呼ぶとはどういう意味か?」. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy . 26 (3): 325– 334. doi :10.1007/s11019-023-10147-x. PMC 10425495. PMID 37131099 .
^ニック・J・デイヴィス;ファン コーニングスブルッゲン、マルティン G. (2013)。 「『非侵襲的』脳刺激は非侵襲的ではない。」システム神経科学のフロンティア。7 : 76.土井: 10.3389/fnsys.2013.00076。PMC 3870277。PMID 24391554。
^ ab Danilov, Igor Val; Medne, Dace; Mihailova, Sandra (2025年7月3日). 「慢性疼痛管理のための自然神経刺激:月経困難症および月経性片頭痛を有する3名の患者を対象とした症例シリーズ」OBM Neurobiology . 09 (3): 1– 11. doi : 10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2503290 .
^シュワルツ、ジェレミー. 「グループセラピーを検討すべき5つの理由」US News & World Report . 2017年7月22日時点のオリジナルよりアーカイブ。 2021年4月12日閲覧。
^ショーター、エドワード(1996年1月)「精神薬理学の始まり:深睡眠療法」ヨーロッパ精神医学誌11 : 236s. doi :10.1016/0924-9338(96)88707-4. S2CID 144323687.
^ Minkel, Jared D.; Krystal, Andrew D.; Benca, Ruth M. (2017). 「単極性大うつ病」.睡眠医学の原則と実践. pp. 1352–1362.e5. doi :10.1016/B978-0-323-24288-2.00137-9. ISBN978-0-323-24288-2。