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Prevention is universally advocated, especially in the case of noncommunicable diseases. However, given the proliferation of preventive technologies, it does not seem defensible to generically encourage preventive behaviors and tests for healthcare professionals and users. In this essay, we articulate concepts, ideas and criteria for considering preventive measures, providing a minimum guide to be used by professionals (especially in primary healthcare) and managers. The concepts of primary, secondary and quaternary prevention are explored, as well as those of reductive and additive prevention, high-risk and population-based preventive strategies; evidence-based medicine and its contemporary crisis; the precautionary principle; health promotion, an expanded, person-centered approach and shared decision-making. This discussion was designed to improve competence in the evaluation of preventive measures, making clinical and health decisions more judicious and less iatrogenic regarding primary and secondary prevention.

Public Health and Preventive Medicine, as a first-level discipline within the field of medical sciences, plays a crucial role in standardizing terminology for the purposes of discipline construction, technological advancement, and societal progress. Given the current macro-environment of social development, establishing and perfecting a standardized terminology system for Public Health and Preventive Medicine is not only a necessity for the discipline itself but also a pressing need for the nation and the world. This paper focuses on the development environment and current status of the Public Health and Preventive Medicine discipline system. It explores the current state, challenges, and future prospects of building a terminology system for Public Health and Preventive Medicine from the perspectives of terminology evaluation, standardized application, and discipline construction.

Faced with the multiple challenges impacting the Belgian healthcare system - notably the aging of the population, the increase in chronic diseases and growing social inequalities in health - the development of a disruptive preventive approach rooted in health promotion is essential to address the population's health problems in a cross-sectional and intersectoral way. However, the scant attention paid to prevention and promotion in the Belgian political landscape (only 3 % of healthcare expenditure), accentuated by the fragmentation of its deployment between the various political-institutional entities (Federal Authority, Communities and Regions), represents a significant limitation. New opportunities, supported in particular by "4P medicine", are paving the way for a modernization of preventive approaches. However, this new way of conceiving prevention will only be beneficial to the community, in all its diversity and complexity, if it re-engages with the fundamentals of health promotion.