The differences between an internist and a family doctor?

[The Che]

I was curios and wanted to know if:
1.Can these 2 doctors perform surgery?
2.Do these types of doctors check every person(from newborn to elderly)?
3.Can both check the male(penis) and female body parts(OB/GYN)
4. Which is better to have and has a better future in medicine

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[Bacchus]

Neither is better. FP allows you to treat infants.

 

[UNMorBUST]

I was curios and wanted to know if:
1.Can these 2 doctors perform surgery?
Usually no, there are a few small procedures though.
2.Do these types of doctors check every person(from newborn to elderly)?
FM can check everyone, Internist is mostly adults(peds are for infants)
3.Can both check the male(penis) and female body parts(OB/GYN)
They can check them, but usually refer if need to.
4. Which is better to have and has a better future in medicine
Both have a future.

.

 

[njbmd]

I was curios and wanted to know if:
1.Can these 2 doctors perform surgery?
2.Do these types of doctors check every person(from newborn to elderly)?
3.Can both check the male(penis) and female body parts(OB/GYN)
4. Which is better to have and has a better future in medicine

Question 1- neither of these two specialties perform surgery outside of small office procedures that can be done with or without local anesthesia.
Question 2 - Family Medicine specialists will usually examine and treat everyone in the family from birth to death. Internists or specialists in Internal Medicine will generally examine and treat adults (post adolescence to death).
Question 3- Both of these specialists are able to examine men and women in terms of screening reproductive problems/ailments. Gynecologists generally treat all diseases of the female reproductive system and urologist generally treat all diseases of the male reproductive system.
Question 4 - Either Internal Medicine or Family Medicine will have an excellent future in health care for those persons who enjoy their scope of practice. There are no specialties in medicine that do not have a "future".

 

[The Che]

Thank u soooo much

 

[hopefuldoc87]

Question 1- neither of these two specialties perform surgery outside of small office procedures that can be done with or without local anesthesia.
Question 2 - Family Medicine specialists will usually examine and treat everyone in the family from birth to death. Internists or specialists in Internal Medicine will generally examine and treat adults (post adolescence to death).
Question 3- Both of these specialists are able to examine men and women in terms of screening reproductive problems/ailments. Gynecologists generally treat all diseases of the female reproductive system and urologist generally treat all diseases of the male reproductive system.
Question 4 - Either Internal Medicine or Family Medicine will have an excellent future in health care for those persons who enjoy their scope of practice. There are no specialties in medicine that do not have a "future".

Seriously? I heard one of the biggest fears of family docs and primary care physicians in general is that mid-levels (PA's and such) will soon treat most of the patient population, rendering PCP's and family docs patientless. Am I the only one that's heard of this happening?

 

[xrevision]

None of the pcps i work with are scared of NP or PAs taking too much of their work.

 

[Bacchus]

Seriously? I heard one of the biggest fears of family docs and primary care physicians in general is that mid-levels (PA's and such) will soon treat most of the patient population, rendering PCP's and family docs patientless. Am I the only one that's heard of this happening?

You still need someone to watch over them.

 

[dr zaius]

None of the pcps i work with are scared of NP or PAs taking too much of their work.

Same.

Also, I laughed out loud at male(penis) for some reason.

 

[Aladdin]

Seriously? I heard one of the biggest fears of family docs and primary care physicians in general is that mid-levels (PA's and such) will soon treat most of the patient population, rendering PCP's and family docs patientless. Am I the only one that's heard of this happening?

Most of the ones I know are much more worried about PAs and FNPs that are not very good and do not provide the same quality of care as many/most PCPs do

 

[nevercold]

1.Can these 2 doctors perform surgery?
Any LICENSED physician can exercise the duties of any specialty, including performing surgical procedures. However, you are unlikely to be hired by a group or hospital or get operating rights at a hospital without completing a surgical residency and becoming licensed specifically by the American College of Surgeons. So typically neither performs "surgery" in their scope of practice although both perform small procedures (skin biopsies, etc.). In addition, family practice residencies include a component of surgical training that often allows these doctors to perform a wider scope of office procedures. In contrast, an internal medicine residency is a requisite pathway into specialties such as cardiology and gastroenterology that perform a number of their own procedures such as vascular catheterizations, implantation of medical devices, endoscopy, colonoscopy, etc.

2.Do these types of doctors check every person(from newborn to elderly)?
Family practice training includes both pediatrics and adult medicine, although the component of pediatrics training is geared towards outpatient management and only minimally towards inpatient care of the child. The focus on adult management is similar. Internal medicine focuses on more thorough and advanced management of the adult (18+) only, enabling the trainee to become better versed in hospital level acute care and somewhat less reliant on specialists than the family practitioner at the diagnostic level of care. Pediatrics is the under 18 counterpart of internal medicine. A combined Internal Medicine/Pediatrics residency includes both parts with the greater focus on specialty and hospital care of people from 0-115 (if they make it to 115, you should probably just leave them alone).

3.Can both check the male(penis) and female body parts(OB/GYN)
All practitioners are educated in the care of the whole human body, male and female. You can't get out of examining either. Family practice residency does include a specific component of training in OB/Gyn that Internal Medicine does not, however. Family practitioners can choose to include obstetrics (delivering babies) as a part of their practice.

4. Which is better to have and has a better future in medicine
Seeing as how there is a huge shortage of primary care physicians, both.

 

[bodonid]

I was curios and wanted to know if:
1.Can these 2 doctors perform surgery?
2.Do these types of doctors check every person(from newborn to elderly)?
3.Can both check the male(penis) and female body parts(OB/GYN)
4. Which is better to have and has a better future in medicine

Curios! the new cereal by Kellogg's! Now you can mispell things in milk!

 

[The Che]

LOL
THANX PPL
Now i understand
:0

 

[Emmet2301]

Can one do the job of the other? Are they that similar?

 

[Perrotfish]

Can one do the job of the other? Are they that similar?

From a medical studnet, may be wrong:

IM doesn't work on kids, Peds doesn't work on adults. FM can works on both as well as a few simple surgical procedures and a little bit of Ob/Gyn as well (the surgery and Ob/Gyn is particularly prevalent in rural areas). IM and Peds can subspecialize (Nephrology, Cardiology, etc) via a fellowship. Their new subspecialty gives them a drastic boost in pay and a new focus for their career (cardiologists don't do much other than cardiology). FM is limited to 1 year fellowships that, with the exceptions of sports medicine and sleep medicine, generally don't involve a boost in pay and are mainly useful in terms of making the fellowship grad the 'go to' guy for something in his private practice GP work (an FM with an Ob/Gyn fellowship might deliver more babies, but will still work as a GP). In some states a combination of legislation and tradition makes it difficult for FM to progress very far in the hospital hierarchy, though in others not. FM is paid, on average, slightly more and is better equiped to work in a rural area where the FM doc might be miles from any other type of medical care. Finally I'll think you'll find that FM docs have much stronger (almost religious, really) views on increasing the proportion of primary care to specialty care in the US. That help?