what do General Internal Medicine doctors do? as in, just work in hospitals or also have a private practice ?

Answer 1

General internal Medicine doctors specifically called INTERNIST does many things in diagnosing and non-surgical treatment of many disorders and diseases of an ADULT especially of the INTERNAL ORGANS and the body as a whole. Internal medicine covers many subspecialties.

The following are some of the subspecialties covered by internists:
>>Cardiology - deals with the heart and the blood vessels disorders.
>>Nephrology - deals with kidney disorders.
>>Endocrinology - deals with disorders of endocrine system. For example those who have diabetes and goiter are treated by endocrinologist.
>>Pulmonology - deals with lung disorders.
>>Hematology- deals with blood disorders.
>>Medical Oncology - deals with cancer treatment.
>>Infectious Disease - deals with diseases that are infectious like AIDS, malaria,etc.
>>Gastroenterology- deals with disorders of digestive system.
>>etc..etc...

You see there is a lot of works for internists to do. Not to forget to mention that care of the aged (geriatrics medicine), critical care, care of adolescent (adolescent medicine), as well as nuclear and sports medicine are covered by internists too. You can say that internists actually covers most care of the body except some aspects as those that requires the SURGICAL treatments, bone disorders (ORTHOPEDICS) and disorders of the children (PEDIATRICS) and FERTILITY related aspects.

Internists can work in hospital or engage in a private practice in a particular SUBSPECIALTY (be a cardiologist, hematologist, endocrinilogist, etc.) or can practice as a GENERAL PRACTITIONER, or a FAMILY PHYSICIAN or FAMILY PRACTITIONER who covers all the aspects of internal medicine.

AND...as general practitioners, internists in some circumstances also do jobs that are out of internal medicine....they can deliver babies, do some minor surgeries, and everything ANY doctor does.

Answer 2

What Internal Medicine Doctors Do

Answer 3

Internists in the US traditionally have had a mix of office and hospital practice. Lately, there's been a trend towards a division, with office-based physicians finding it more cost-effective to drop their hospital practice and others becoming hospitalists, working only with inpatients. This latter group tend to work shifts in the mode of emergency physicians, and they may trade some level of income for the surety of time off for family life. The former group also find that without the risk of being called in to the hospital both the office practice and family life are more stable. We're in a time of flux among internists right now, but I suspect this trend will continue to grow, especially in urban areas.

Answer 4

There are doctors that specialize in the non-surgical treatment of disease usually affecting the internal organs.
They, as most doctors, can work at both a private practice and hospital.
Ever see "House" on TV? That's about half of his role...
they specialize in the whole anatomy, and are often consulted by other doctors.