What is internal medicine?
Internal medicine is a medical specialty which focuses on the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of nonsurgical conditions in adults. This specialty has a number of subspecialties ranging from nephrology, the study of the kidneys, to immunology, the study of allergies and immune system disorders. A doctor who is certified in this specialty is known as an internist; many adults around the world use internists as their primary care physicians. Internists should not be confused with interns, first-year doctors undergoing supervised post-graduate training. This medical specialty is incredibly varied, because it focuses on the whole body of the patient. Although the name suggests internal organs, internists also treat external conditions. Internists are often used to solve medical puzzles, since they are familiar with a wide range of medical conditions and their causes.
Internal Medicine can be defined as a medical specialty devoted to the comprehensive care of adult patients, focused in the diagnosis and non surgical treatment of diseases affecting internal organs and systems (excluding gyneco-obstetrical problems) and the prevention of those diseases. This position paper reviews the history of Internal Medicine, the birth of its subspecialties and the difficulties faced by young physicians when they decide whether to practice as internist or in a subspecialty. In Chile as in most occidental countries formal training in a subspecialty of internal medicine requires previous certification in internal medicine but the proportion of young physicians who remain in practice as general internists appears to be considerably lower than those who choose a subspecialty. The main reasons for this unbalance can be related to financial advantages (by the practice of specialized technologies) and the patients’ tendency to request direct assistance by a professional
• Internal medicine is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and non-surgical treatment of diseases, especially of internal organ systems. • Doctors of internal medicine focus on adult medicine and have had special study and training focusing on the prevention and treatment of adult diseases. • Internists are sometimes referred to as the “doctor’s doctor,” because they are often called upon to act as consultants to other physicians to help solve puzzling diagnostic problems. • Dr. Wolf and Dr. Balta are both certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine (www.abim.org). Certification by ABIM means that internists have demonstrated to their peers and to the public that they have the clinical judgment, skills and attitudes essential for the delivery of excellent patient care.
right arrow Michael LaCombe 1 March 1993 | Volume 118 Issue 5 | Pages 384-387 On internist’s view of what internal medicine comprises. Or should you have had those moments of uncommon richness: the sudden intimate connection with a friend, or the birth of a child, or the irresistible impulse to thoughtfulness. (Why are they so few, these epiphanies? Is it because we get caught up with the ordinary, intending to save these special moments, yet never quite return to them? Do we get sidetracked, never to get back to that special divergence that might give life meaning?) Medicine is no different. We have our special moments in medicine, moments laced with a sense of privilege. There is that first day in the dissection room where a mystery unfolds. The human body opens before you and you find you are not repulsed after all. It even holds your interest. But more than that. Its symmetry, its efficiency of design, its universality, and above all, its poetry, strike you as marvelous. And behind
