What is Internal Medicine?

Internal medicine is one of the most popular medical fields. The reason why internal medicine is so popular is that it covers a broad spectrum when it comes to treating patients. There are several subcategories that people can specialize in when they become an internal medicine doctor.

If you have gone to see a doctor as an adult, you most likely have seen an internal medicine doctor or internist. Internal medicine is a field of medicine that concentrates on diagnosing, treating, and preventing nonsurgical complications and conditions in adults and older children. An internal medicine doctor is almost always the first place that a person goes when they have any symptoms or conditions that they need diagnosed. If the doctor reaches a diagnosis and it is out of their capability, then they will refer the patient to a specialist.

Internal medicine is unlike other fields of medicines as it concentrates on the whole body. One minute an internist may be checking on a patient who complains of stomach pains and the next minute they are looking at a person who fell and may have sprained their wrist. If you are thinking about becoming an internal medicine doctor you are going to need to be aware of a wide range of medical conditions and symptoms and stay up-to-date on the information as well. You will need to know how to diagnosis everything from an infectious disease like hepatitis to the common cold to tumors and cancer.

Internal medicine has many different subcategories that a doctor can specialize in. A person who is pursuing a career in internal medicine may choose to strictly be an internist and work as a family doctor or something of that nature or they may choose to pursue one of the subcategories and become a specialist. Just some of the many subcategories that an internal medicine doctor can specialize in are: cardiovascular disease, infectious disease, adolescent medicine, geriatrics, sports medicine, nephrology, oncology, and hematology. One may actually call decide to be a generic internal medicine doctor as well as specialize in one of the many subcategories in the field so that they can see more patients. Or, most of the time, a few internal medicine doctors will form their own clinic or practice so that patients have the specialties covered in one office and don't have to be referred out to another doctor office.

If you are thinking about pursuing any of these internal medicine jobs, then you need to know the requirements for practicing as an internist. First a person graduate from medical school and complete a 3 year residency program. They must past the board test to practice medicine in the state that they wish to practice in. If you want to become a specialist in an area of internal medicine that requires at least 1-2 more years of additional training in that field.

If you want to learn more about internal medicine and internal medicine jobs, then visit the American Board of Internal Medicine.

Sources: http://www.aamc.org/students/cim/pub_internalmed.htm