Isn’t all medicine internal? How is a it different from a PCP?
In: Biology
Internal medicine is an “adult pediatrician”. (That’s how I explained it as a resident). I agree the name is dumb- the only “external” medicine would be dermatology and maybe ophthalmology, but it is what it is.
Internists specialize in adult non-surgical disease in both outpatient clinics (like a pcp) and in the hospital (aka hospitalists). We deal with problems of the heart, kidneys, intestines, liver, lungs, infections, etc… using mostly medicines which differentiates us from surgeons who fix people using some medicines but mostly knives.
Many internists do extra training and become “sub-specialists” like cardiologists or gastroenterologists focusing on a specific organ.
Contrast this with family medicine (who also are often PCPs). Their training is focused on the outpatient world, not as much in the hospital. But they also take care of kids and ob-gyn issues including delivering babies.
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