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I was wondering if anyone could elaborate on the differences between these 3 specialties.
Thanks~
Thanks~
Oh boy, before the community eats you alive for your lack of researching skills...may I suggest Google or checking out each of these specialty's threads here on SDN
Or try the search function.
Best of luck to you, boyyo.
Primary care is not a specialty, while the other two are. Internal medicine is adult medicine, and internists often run primary care practices. Internists can also sub specialize into fields like cardiology, oncology, etc.I did some research, but cannot really ascertain the difference in their "work."
Internal medicine is adult medicine, family med is all ages, and primary care is just care from a healthcare provider?
It seems like all three physicians do the same basic job, and the titles are merely formalities concerning who and where they decide to practice.
On the most basic of levels of definition (to the best of my ability, I could be wrong):
Family - treats all age ranges from the tiniest of humans to the wrinkliest of humans
Internal - treats mainly adults
Primary - outpatient only, probably the type of doctor you'd see if you went to the E.R. for a cold but could also be one you see on a regular basis.
FM = stuffs that nurse practitioners can do.
IM = gateway to a whole varieties of disciplines.
Nice to see you have your head firmly planted in your ass prior to matriculation.
Nice to see you have your head firmly planted in your ass prior to matriculation.
I remember one General surgeon saying Obgyn specialists arent really doctors. Its a culture in medicine. One Obgyn referred to neurosurgeons as those guys who chops brains up and paralyze patients.Don't blame me. I got the "FM is replaceable by Nurses" straight out of a doctor's mouth, a seasoned doctor.
We premeds are impressionable.
I remember one General surgeon saying Obgyn specialists arent really doctors. Its a culture in medicine. One Obgyn referred to neurosurgeons as those guys who chops brains up and paralyze patients.
itt: pre-meds groping at the truth (and failing)
Primary care is long-term care, specializing in the management of chronic diseases and in preventative care. Think your pediatrician, geriatrician, or the guy you get physicals from once every few years. Primary care physicians (PCPs) can be board certified in family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics. Some people consider psychiatry and ob/gyn to have primary care components, since these physicians see the patient throughout their lives for stable outpatient care (well woman exams, managing chronic mental illness).
Urgent care (urgent care clinics, emergency departments) can be done by internal medicine, emergency medicine, family med, pediatrics, etc, but is not considered "primary care". Also, nobody but emergency medicine physicians is staffing an emergency department (I'm ignoring trauma surgeons and liason psych people).
Basically, primary care is a type of healthcare delivery, while internal medicine and family medicine are board-certifications. Many internists and family physicians do primary care, but many don't.
Does that make sense?
Bolded is not necessarily true. Community EDs are often staffed by family medicine doctors, internists, or hell even moonlighting internal medicine residents. At large shops (trauma centers, stroke, STEMI, or servicing large populations), then yeah almost always EP.
Let the DNP deliver your baby or your wife's baby, then.Don't blame me. I got the "FM is replaceable by Nurses" straight out of a doctor's mouth, a seasoned doctor.
We premeds are impressionable.
Yes and so can family med docs.Yeah, I know of a few physicians that were IM and after working so long in the ED got grandfathered in (perhaps those are special cases).
But I have also heard that in smaller cities some IM docs can moonlight at ED's. Has anyone heard of this or seen this?
FM = stuffs that nurse practitioners can do.
Also: The internist knows something and does nothing, the surgeon knows nothing and does everything and the pathologist knows everything but too late.
itt: pre-meds groping at the truth (and failing)
Nice to see you have your head firmly planted in your ass prior to matriculation.
Don't most FM and IM docs provide mostly "primary care"? That seems to be the rule, rather than the exception. For the purposes of quick, simple definitions.
I meant people practicing general internal medicine. Should have been more specific. Cardiology, gastroenterology, etc. are clearly not primary care.
I've seen these posts many times, but to this day I am still confused; probably because of the vagueness of all of the responses. OP, I definitely don't blame you for your question.
In terms of training, what is the difference between IM and FM? It is obvious that FM gets exposed to more age groups, but besides that, in terms of "adult medicine", don't they both get exposed to the same exact pathologies?
If so, then why should I choose an Internal Medicine physician, if a Family Medicine doctor learned the same exact adult diseases AND MORE. Obviously if this was the case, there wouldn't be a dichotomy....soooo.... specifically, what do internists learn that family docs don't?
Somebody actually in one of these would give the best answer, but I'll try to give an overview that is only a little bit of a disservice to both specialties (both of which I have great respect for).
Your typical IM resident will spend more time in the hospital, more time rotating on specialty services like cardiology, nephrology, etc, more didactic time on detailed pathophysiology, and in general more time seeing and treating much sicker patients. They're learning adult medicine in more depth, but aren't covering as much peds, ob, or gyn.
Your typical FM resident will spend more time in clinic, more time rotating on services like the ED, peds, and OBGYN, have more continuity with patients they see in clinic during residency, and in general spending more time training for prevention on an outpatient basis. They're learning about a broader swath of medicine, but with less depth than the internists.
That's a really crude description that doesn't do either specialty justice. Which one makes you better prepared to take care of patients in a primary care setting? I am not touching that with a thirty foot pole.
To further my ridiculous thought process, would it be fair to say that an experienced FM doc that has accumulated enough exposure (in terms of amount) to adult pathologies, would rival a fresh IM residency graduate in terms of knowledge?
On the most basic of levels of definition (to the best of my ability, I could be wrong):
Family - treats all age ranges from the tiniest of humans to the wrinkliest of humans
Internal - treats mainly adults
Primary - outpatient only, probably the type of doctor you'd see if you went to the E.R. for a cold but could also be one you see on a regular basis.
I'd say those are apples and oranges.
No. Internists don't usually treat kids, like a family doc would.
"Doctors of Internal Medicine. Doctors for Adults.® "
http://www.acponline.org/patients_families/about_internal_medicine/
No definitely not. Internists knows diagnosis and drug management better, FM knows other specialties better.It seems like all three physicians do the same basic job
****. Sorry. Meant it the other way around. A Family Medicine doctor covers the same spectrum that an Internal Medicine doctor does - and then some.
I don't mean to say that one is better than the other, this is just important to note so that when one chooses a field and they want to avoid certain areas of medicine, they will have a better understanding of who actually gets exposed to what; irrespective of the frequency,
No definitely not. Internists knows diagnosis and drug management better, FM knows other specialties better.
If you have life threatening systemic disease, you are better off with an internist . if you consult for the first time, you are better of with a FP because of their broader knowledge.
This is so inaccurate, I don't know where to begin.
i obviously don't know as much as you so il have to agree with you. this is the information i got from our family medicine consultant. what he told me is that during their training program, FM spends time in different specialties including, Paeds, ENT, Obgyn internal medicine etc. with that said, they are not gonna know this specialties as good as those doing it since they spends less time.This is so inaccurate, I don't know where to begin.
i obviously don't know as much as you so il have to agree with you. this is the information i got from our family medicine consultant. what he told me is that during their training program, FM spends time in different specialties including, Paeds, ENT, Obgyn internal medicine etc. with that said, they are not gonna know this specialties as good as those doing it since they spends less time.
so do you get the same experience(hours) in management of adult conditions as a family physician?You learn diagnosis and drug management just by seeing patients. Internal Medicine is not the only specialty that learns that.
Internal medicine is not the only specialty that sees sick patients, either. Just because you have a "life threatening" illness doesn't mean that the only person who can take care of you is someone in internal medicine....actually, I would argue that a critical care medicine doctor is what you need. And you can specialize in critical care through internal medicine, surgery, Emergency Medicine, or anesthesia.
The main difference between family medicine and internal medicine is that family medicine does peds and OB/gyn, while internal medicine does not. Family medicine also focuses more on outpatient clinic medicine, while internal medicine focuses on inpatient hospital medicine.
so do you get the same experience(hours) in management of adult conditions as a family physician?
The main difference between family medicine and internal medicine is that family medicine does peds and OB/gyn, while internal medicine does not. Family medicine also focuses more on outpatient clinic medicine, while internal medicine focuses on inpatient hospital medicine.
This. For outpatient stuff related to adults, a general internist and a family practitioner are probably pretty equivalent.
This. For outpatient stuff related to adults, a general internist and a family practitioner are probably pretty equivalent. Just based on their training, the family practitioner might be more holistic/touchy-feely and the internist might be more into the pathophysiology, but that's a broad generalization that doesn't mean much individually. (It's just from how the residencies are often structured, and tbh the individual providers personality usually trumps that)
On the other hand, the internists are experts at hospital medicine. Those months the family practice residents are brushing up on their Ob, psych, or pediatrics, the IM residents are spending on the wards or the ICU, dealing with the sickest patients and learning how to manage them. Hence why the vast majority of hospitalists (all of them in certain parts of the country) are IM trained.
And the reason why you'd want to be IM trained instead of FM trained is pretty much the fact that FM is a "dead end". If you want to do primary care +/- Ob and nothing else, FM is a fine career choice. But if you want to do a fellowship (other than sports med) or if you want to do inpatient work, IM offers you those opportunities. These days, only about 30% of internists do general internal medicine/primary care, with the remainder either working as hospitalists or doing a fellowship.
(Of course, there's also always the option of doing a medicine-pediatrics residency. Which is 4 years rather than 3, leaves you board certified in both med and peds, and gives you the option of working outpatient, inpatient for either patient population, or doing any fellowship for medicine, pediatrics, or a combination of the two. The only thing you can't do is Ob.)
this i what i knew too.
Hmm... i don't know. When i shadowed a pediatrician who worked at an urgent care, he made it clear that he wasn't a primary care doc.
However, and unfortunately, nowadays many people would consider an ER doc their primary care physician...
Also, nobody but emergency medicine physicians is staffing an emergency department (I'm ignoring trauma surgeons and liason psych people).
Don't most FM and IM docs provide mostly "primary care"? That seems to be the rule, rather than the exception. For the purposes of quick, simple definitions.
I meant people practicing general internal medicine. Should have been more specific. Cardiology, gastroenterology, etc. are clearly not primary care.
In terms of training, what is the difference between IM and FM? It is obvious that FM gets exposed to more age groups, but besides that, in terms of "adult medicine", don't they both get exposed to the same exact pathologies?
If so, then why should I choose an Internal Medicine physician, if a Family Medicine doctor learned the same exact adult diseases AND MORE. Obviously if this was the case, there wouldn't be a dichotomy....soooo.... specifically, what do internists learn that family docs don't?