Internal medicine or general medicine (in Commonwealth nations) is the medical specialty dealing with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of adult diseases. Physicians specializing in internal medicine are called internists, or physicians.
In Commonwealth nations. Internists are skilled in the management of patients who have undifferentiated or multi-system disease processes. Internists care for hospitalized and ambulatory patients and may play a major role in teaching and research.
Because internal medicine patients are often seriously ill or require complex investigations, internists do much of their work in hospitals. Internists often have subspecialty interests in diseases affecting particular organs or organ systems.
Internal medicine is also a specialty within clinical pharmacy and veterinary medicine.Historically, some of the oldest traces of internal medicine can be traced from Ancient India and Ancient China. Earliest texts about internal medicine are the Ayurvedic anthologies of Charaka.
Internal medicine physicians have practiced both in clinics and in hospitals, often in the same day. Pressures on time have led to many internal medicine physicians to choose one practice setting, who may choose to practice only in the hospital, as a “hospitalist”, or only in an outpatient clinic, as a primary care physician.
