Internal Medicine vs Family Practice

[Treybird]

Can anyone tell me the difference between internal medicine and family practice?
They seem to cover the same thing. Can an internal medicine doc have a family practice?
HELP.
Please E-mail me at [email protected]

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[njbmd]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by Treybird:
•Can anyone tell me the difference between internal medicine and family practice?
They seem to cover the same thing. Can an internal medicine doc have a family practice?
HELP.
Please E-mail me at [email protected]•••••Hi there,

The biggest difference between Internal Medicine and Family Practice is that Family Practice includes obstetrics and pediatrics whereas Internal Medicine does not. Both however, are primary care specialties that focus the total health of their patients from preventive to interventional measures. Both specialties routinely treat disease entities such as hypertension, diabetes,infectious diseases, anemia and other common problems that send patients to physicians. Many people in Family Practice choose to double board in another specialty such as psychiatry. Internal Medicine residency is typically a pre-requesite for fellowships in Cardiology, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Nephrology, Endocrinology and Gastroenterology.

Typical rotations in Family Practice residency would include Pediatrics, Obstetrics-Gynecology, Geriatrics and outpatient medicine. Typical rotations in an Internal Medicine would include Gastroenterology,Nephrology, Cardiology, Critical Care Medicine, Pulmonology and Geriatrics. Both specialties can treat a wide variety of health problems but internists would not typically deliver babies or treat children whereas a Family Practictioner would. Many Family Practitioners will treat entire families from children to elders whereas an internist might focus on the management of more difficult and complex problems in cardiology or endocrinology in adults.

I hope I have provided a basis for you to do more research in to the commonalities and differences between these two primary care specialties.

 

[EidolonSix]

Internal medicine training is more intensively focused on inpatient medical management than FP....however a trend in ramping up the number of outpatient clinic/ambulatory medicine hours for IM has occurred in the past few years. IM has the benefit of being a springboard for numerous medical specialties. FP options are increasing but still relatively few...including sports medicine, geriatrics, hospice/palliative care.

FP's do have an advantage in that they often get procedural training in derm procedures, flex-sig, and some general surgery procedures. Until recently, many residencies had their residents do a number of dedicated surgical rotations...substantial enough to qualify them to do appendectomies, cholcystectomies, and the like. This may not have been useful in an urban setting, but rural FP's with this training are golden. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case...given malpractice insurance rates and the increasing availability of general surgeons in rural areas scrounging for cases.

 

[Treybird]

Thank you very much, your answers have been very helpful. Are you in IM or FP?

 

[titan]

Why don't most all IM people sub-specialize? The benefits of doing a 2-3 year fellowship seem to certainly outweigh the extra 2-3 years beyond residency. Are fellowship positions hard to obtain/very competitive? Are there enough fellowship spots in all areas combined for each internist to sub-specialize? I am interested in a hematology/oncology fellowship later on when I complete med school and residency. Any insight is appreciated!