Isn’t all medicine internal? How is a it different from a PCP?
In: Biology
A pcp does everything in a primary care setting: patients who are not in emergency go to a pcp to get checked out.
The pcp will then diagnose the disorder and treat it themselves if it is a common easily treated ailment, say bronchitis, hypertension with no other problems etc.
If they cannot accurately diagnose or treat the disorder they will send you in to a physician that is much more trained, but only in a highly specific field.
Say a dermatologist for the skin, or an internal medicine one for internal organs, though outside of the hospital it’s likely gonna be a more specialised form of internal medicine, like nephrology for kidneys or gastroenterologist for stomach/digestive tract stuff.
Internal medicine physicians are much more common inside a hospital.
They pretty much take all the patients in that aren’t surgical cases, neurology cases or psychiatric cases.
So diabetes problems, blood pressure problems liver problems anything wrong with your internal organs that doesn’t require surgery right away is going to internal medicine.
Usually a pcp has extensive internal medicine experience from a hospital first before becoming a pcp, as internal medicine is the most versatile basis for doing GP work, since most reasons you’d see a pcp for would be internal organ related
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