What do Internists/Specialists do?

[dikoerastenie]

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I mean I know what surgeons do. But how about cardiologists? I mean I know non-surgeons also do procedures. But is it common for a cardiologist or something to diagnose/consult some disease that a family physician could not? Like if someone gets frequent heart pains is there something besides statins/betablockers/etc standard treatment that cardiologists can advise him on?

 

[Dr McSexy]

Are you expecting to find information here that you wouldn't find through a few google searches?

 

[TheMightySmiter]

Try browsing the specialty subforums here and it might give you a better idea of what the subspecialties like cardiologists do. 🙂

In a nutshell, if your family physician doesn't have the expertise to handle a specific condition, or if they just don't know what's wrong with you, they will send you to a specialist. There are plenty of things that can be wrong with the heart, for example, and plenty of different treatments. A cardiologist will know all of these things, while a family physician may not.

 

[muhali3]

The cardiologist I shadowed did some stress-tests and blood flow imaging that a family physician probably wouldn't do. He would also approve patients for surgery by making sure there were no existing conditions that could cause any complications.

However, for most patients, he would just seem to check their blood pressure, listen to their heartbeat, and then adjust their Coumadin prescription.

 

[anonymousername]

Try browsing the specialty subforums here and it might give you a better idea of what the subspecialties like cardiologists do. 🙂

In a nutshell, if your family physician doesn't have the expertise to handle a specific condition, or if they just don't know what's wrong with you, they will send you to a specialist. There are plenty of things that can be wrong with the heart, for example, and plenty of different treatments. A cardiologist will know all of these things, while a family physician may not.

Alongside being more acclimated with the treatments, from what I've been told, specialists also have more equipment available to diagnose particular conditions that a family doctor would not need or usually use (probably more true for private practices).

 

[CoolWhipp]

They get in the way of real doctors, surgeons.

Actually, internists are going to be increasingly in high demand especially because of the growing population of our elderly. They do a lot of diagnosis and intervention to save you from being cut some day.

 

[LizzyM]

Subspecialists in the field of internal medicine tend to have expertise in the use of specialized equipment and greater familiarity with the diagnosis and treatment rare disorders that might not be seen with enough frequency to be familiar to primary care docs. You might go to your primary care provider with dizziness and fatigue. The primary care doc may listen to your history, listen to your heart & lungs and perhaps get an EKG. When some of the findings on that exam are not "normal" you'll be referred to a cardiologist. (If the findings on exam went in a different direction you might be referred to a neurologist, hematologist, or another specialist.)

While hypertension and mild coronary artery disease are relatively common and often treated with medication by primary care physicians, there are a number of other heart conditions including valvular disease, problems in electrical conduction and heart rhythms, and diseases of the heart muscle (heart failure). Cardiologists handle cardiac catheterizations, pacemakers, inplanted defibrillators, cardiac stress tests, and intrepretation of diagnostic scans of the heart (in conjunction with diagnostic radiology).

Specialists tend to treat patients who need a special tests outside the primary care providers' scope of practice, those who are diagnostically complex or who have co-morbidities (several chronic conditions and something on top of that), and those who do not respond to first line therapy.