A physician is a person who practices medicine. The term "physician" is traditional and still commonly used in the United States, but in the United Kingdom and Australia the term is not used - instead they are called a "doctor" (a term also used in the US). Often also called a "medical physician".

Related titles are "veterinarian", used for one who cures diseases in animals, and "biologist", used for one who studies the life sciences in general. But the term is correctly used only when applied to doctors.

In most jurisdictions nowadays, physicians need government permission to practise their profession. This is known as licensing in the United States, as colegiation in Spain, as men'kyo in Japan and as registration in Australia.

Titles for specialised physicians include:

• anesthesiologist
• cardiologist
• dermatologist
• family physician
• general practitioner
• gynaecologist and andrologist.
• internist
• neurologist
• obstetrician
• ophthalmologist
• pediatrician
• psychiatrist
• radiologist
• surgeon

See also : medicine