Title says it all

Is there a difference or are the terms interchangeable?

I'm not entirely sure, but to me, clinical microbiology sounds more hospital/patient oriented, while medical micro has the ultimate goal of creating medicines to cure diseases... a lot like what I'm doing (I'm working in the Center for Molecular Medicine at my university).

 

I'm just guessing here, though. Maybe wikipedia has a better answer.

I think that the ultimate goal is to make names that sound good to donors but mean absolutely nothing. Like "genomic medicine".

Then you take random syllables and create a spinoff company, like say Genicine. The problem is that everyone does this, and they are all using a limited number of syllables, so it starts to get very confusing.

i personally feel medical microbiology is more specific dealing with pathogenesis route of entry etc while clinical is focused on epidemiology diagnosis and cure

Title says it all

Is there a difference or are the terms interchangeable?

 

Medical microbiology is investigating pathogenesis and virulence. E.g. investigating the edema factor of anthrax and how the body responds to it with toll-like receptors.

 

Clinical microbiology is working in a hospital lab diagnosing people. E.g. receiving a tissue sample and diagnostic methods to identify the pathogen.

Epidemiology is also a field in clinical microbiology. But you are aware that the original question was posted a few years ago?