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, prognosis 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.