Modality is a term used to describe variants within a larger set and is contextually dependent. For example, one healthcare modality is Emergency Care as is Intensive Care.
Within specific fields, modalities can also have multiple applications of categorization. For example, health fields can have care-related modalities, intent-related modalities, and treatment-related modalities. Examples of each follows:
Care Modalities
- Emergency Care
- Intensive Care
- Ambulatory Care
- Home Care
- End-of-Life Care
Treatment Modalities
- Primary Therapy
- Adjuvant Therapy
- Combination Therapy (multiple drugs)
- Mono Therapy (single drug)
- Step Therapy
Intent-Based Modalities
- Abortive Therapy
- Bridge Therapy (transition between two therapies)
- Consolidation Therapy (combine benefits from multiple therapies)
- Definitive Therapy
- Salvage Therapy
- Preventative Therapy
- Supportive Therapy
In any case, modality is used to exert some structure into a field of related options. This organizing methodology helps support scientific study and empirical comparison of different approaches to healthcare (when the modality is health-related, of course.)