The field of social medicine seeks to implement social care through 1.
* understanding how social and economic conditions impact health, disease and the practice of medicine and 2.
* fostering conditions in which this understanding can lead to a healthier society. Social medicine as a scientific field gradually began in the early 19th century, the Industrial Revolution and the subsequent increase in poverty and disease among workers raised concerns about the effect of social processes on the health of the poor. The field of social medicine is most commonly addressed today by public health efforts to understand what are known as social determinants of health.
