Medical anthropologists have sought to understand and critique the similarities and differences between the social and cultural authority held by folk healing and biomedical practices. Understanding and criticism arise from the desire to learn more about the relationship between a sick person and a healer/doctor. This relationship is a crucial element in analyzing how social authority, which “implies the control of action through the imposition of commands” (Joralemon 2010:69), and cultural authority, which “implies the construction of reality through definitions of fact and value” ( Joralemon 2010:69) are formed, used, and supported within a medical community. In both folk healing and biomedical practices, as Joralemon states, “the ability to heal would support the healer's claims of superiority over others and could be used to promote professionalization” (2010:70). He says that when a doctor or healer is right in the diagnosis and the patient improves, doctors and healers gain more power and prestige within the community, which leads to greater authority. The job of a medical anthropologist is to observe and analyze how these relationships function within different medical/healing practices around the world and in different communities. When medical anthropologists examine folk healing practices, they observe how the healing practices used by the healer demonstrate their social and social identity. cultural authority, and they often question the authority because there is no method to quantify the results of success or failure of healing practice in traditional scientific methods of biomedicine. It is also difficult to quantify because the practices themselves vary within different cultural contexts of the community and each has its own... means of paper... in budgets for public health measures that establish sanitation systems or distribute tablets of chlorine for water. Both folk and biomedical healing practices strive to help heal patients, improve lives, and end suffering. Each practice has developed and uses its own specific traditions and methods to serve its community. They are very similar as they both rely on the authority of the healer/physician to heal patients. However, they differ widely in procedures and the development of social and cultural authority. By studying and analyzing differences, medical anthropologists are able to develop preventative systems and identify solutions to epidemics that best fit the cultural context of different communities. Programs and resources that complement the traditions and cultures of the communities served have proven most effective.