Pro and Cons of Med/Peds vs. Family Medicine

[BlueBoy]

Hi!

I was curious what the pros and cons of going to med/peds vs. family. From what I could scour fromt he net, it seems that the scope of both practices are similar except that the training in med/peds is more hospital based and it does not include an OB rotation.

I am not planning to specialized further than med/peds, but it would be nice to have the option to do a subspecialy. Family seems to be a bit limited in that respect. The only subsecialties under family medicine that I've heard about has been geriatrics, adolescent medicine, and sports.

I was wondering what other people's opinions or impressions on the two specialties.

Thanks

BB

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[platinumdoc]

If I had to choose, myself, I would do med/peds. It would give dual board certification and you can do a fellowship in anything (ie. cards, GI, pulm, endocrinology, etc etc etc). Family practice would be an end point in your training unless you wanted those few fellowships that you already named plus Obstetrics.

Another combo that I had considered a long time ago was Med/Emerg Med. The additional years in Medicine would help any ER physicians out there....

 

[jephyboy]

This is kind of a simple question: what is a residency in Medicine and how does it differ from family medicine? Thanks.

 

[prolixless]

I just had an internist explain the difference between family med and internal med to me. All in all, they are very similar because they deal with general conditions. However, family medicine deals with patients from all age groups--from the cradle to the grave--whereas internal medicine deals only with adults and older adults. Also, internal medicine focusses on the more complicated conditions and often entails training in critical care treatment. This is why there are so many subspecialties available from internal medicine. Usually a family medicine doctor will refer his/her patients with the most complicated conditions to IM docs. And, consequently, IM docs tend to be the ones who diagnose complicated conditions that will require complicated treatments, such as surgery.