General Internal Medicine Physicians
American woman Anna Steve recounts that five years ago she began feeling severe pain in various parts of her body, especially in her head, joints, and muscles, and that she took to lying in bed all day, sleeping for long stretches just to escape what she was going through. Over the years, Anna Steve went through more than 50 doctors across different specialties and was diagnosed with "fibromyalgia," receiving various medications and treatments specific to that condition — but none of it did her any good or produced any noticeable result, and her health stayed exactly the same. That is, until one day she visited an internal medicine specialist named Dr. Wright, who was the one able to diagnose her correctly. He ran a number of detailed tests and asked her some important questions about the nature of her work and the places she'd previously lived, until he determined she had a condition called "Lyme disease," caused by the bite of a specific insect common in rural and wild areas of the United States. Anna says: "Dr. Wright, the internal medicine physician, saved my life and gave me the right treatment — I owe it to him that I got my health and wellbeing back and returned to my work." When you develop some medical condition and doctors from various specialties fail to diagnose you and identify the real cause of what you're suffering from, that's when the internal medicine physician steps in to save you. An internist can diagnose and treat an enormous number of conditions that affect adults, since their broad experience and deep training across most medical specialties give them insight into how the internal organs and systems of the body work. This kind of doctor understands the body's systems well and knows how a small disruption or minor dysfunction in one part can affect other parts and lead to complex illnesses and confusing health conditions that are difficult to diagnose. The internist runs a wide range of tests on the patient, learns about their lifestyle, work, and medical history, connects all the details together, and analyzes the information and test results to finally arrive at the correct diagnosis that allows them to provide the right treatment. In the lines ahead, you'll learn in more detail about a range of illnesses an internist can diagnose and treat.
Meet the Writer: Waleed Abo Omiraa
What You'll Actually Do
The core tasks and responsibilities that fill a typical day.
- Treat internal disorders, such as hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, or problems of the lung, brain, kidney, or gastrointestinal tract.
- Analyze records, reports, test results, or examination information to diagnose medical condition of patient.
- Prescribe or administer medication, therapy, and other specialized medical care to treat or prevent illness, disease, or injury.
- Provide and manage long-term, comprehensive medical care, including diagnosis and nonsurgical treatment of diseases, for adult patients in an office or hospital.
- Manage and treat common health problems, such as infections, influenza or pneumonia, as well as serious, chronic, and complex illnesses, in adolescents, adults, and the elderly.
- Monitor patients' conditions and progress and reevaluate treatments as necessary.
- Collect, record, and maintain patient information, such as medical history, reports, or examination results.
- Make diagnoses when different illnesses occur together or in situations where the diagnosis may be obscure.
- Explain procedures and discuss test results or prescribed treatments with patients.
- Advise patients and community members concerning diet, activity, hygiene, and disease prevention.
- Refer patient to medical specialist or other practitioner when necessary.
- Immunize patients to protect them from preventable diseases.
- Advise surgeon of a patient's risk status and recommend appropriate intervention to minimize risk.
- Direct and coordinate activities of nurses, students, assistants, specialists, therapists, and other medical staff.
- Provide consulting services to other doctors caring for patients with special or difficult problems.
- Prepare government or organizational reports on birth, death, and disease statistics, workforce evaluations, or the medical status of individuals.