What Is Internal Medicine?
Internal medicine describes a medical specialty that combines scientific discovery and clinical expertise for the compassionate care of adult patients. It covers the full range of treatment from prevention and diagnosis to curing complex illnesses.
Why Is an Internist a Good Choice for Adults?
Your internist gets to know you personally, providing guidance to prevent future problems, catching early signs of disease and treating conditions that bother you. Our physicians care for you as a whole being, rather than focusing on a specific organ, such as specialties like cardiology. Internal medicine became a distinct and recognized medical discipline in 1936 after the American Board of Internal Medicine’s founding.
As your physician begins to learn about your lifestyle, your family history and your needs, you’re provided with deliberate guidance for staying as healthy as possible. In-house referrals to specialists are easily available. Typically, if you’re healthy, you see your physician annually for a examination.
Conditions that often are monitored in adults include:
- Blood pressure
- Skin changes
- Sleep patterns
- Colon health
- Female hormonal changes
- Vision
- Weight management
- Mental health
- Male sexual health
Who Practices Internal Medicine?
An internist is a doctor who specializes in internal medicine. To become an internist, your doctor had to complete an approved program at an accredited medical school. During this time, your doctor had to focus three of the seven years of study, plus postgraduate work, on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of adult diseases.
Internists are highly qualified to treat a wide range of conditions. They’re equally adept at treating athletes and serving their particular needs to maximize performance.
Sports-related treatments include:
- Complete physical exams
- Sports exams
- Rapid stress tests
- Intravenous (IV) infusions
- Muscle sprain treatments
- Joint pain solutions
- Bone density tests
Do Internists Deliver Vaccines?
Science has proven that vaccines are an effective prevention for their specified diseases. Since internists are especially keen on prevention, internists offer a wide range of vaccines.
In fact, you can get all your vaccines, including:
- Travel vaccines. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends that you get all the shots required for the country you’re visiting and stay up-to-date on routine vaccines for home. Since your body needs time to build up immunity, you should get vaccinated at least a month before you travel.
- Hepatitis B. The Hep B vaccine is both safe and effective. It’s recommended for all children at birth and up to the age of 18. Adults with diabetes or with high-risk lifestyles are encouraged to get it, as well. It’s also known as the “anti-cancer vaccine” because hepatitis B is the leading cause of liver cancer.
- Tetanus and diphtheria. The CDC recommends the TD vaccine for children once they reach seven years of age. You should get boosters every 10 years after that, but it can be earlier if you suffer a dirty cut.
- Flu and influenza. Influenza can be a severe illness that requires hospitalization. It does sometimes lead to death, as the seasonal flu causes between 12,000 and 61,000 deaths per year in the United States. The CDC says that getting the flu vaccine each year is the best protection against the seasonal flu.
- Though most common in children, pneumococcal is deadlier for adults. The CDC recommends two different pneumococcal vaccines. PCV13 is for children under two years of age, and they recommend PPSV23 for adults over 65.
