Angie's LIST Guide to
Internal medicine

Internists may decide to focus their services on a specialty area such as allergy and immunology, oncology (cancer), endocrinology (diabetes) or adolescent medicine. An internist who provides a more general but comprehensive scope of services can perform diagnostics such as physical examinations, bone-density testing, cholesterol testing and pap smears. Internists can treat ear infections, order blood tests and X-rays and offer treatment for menopause. Internists have the training to give an extensive range of diagnosis and treatment services that typically would have to be done by several different doctors.

Because internists are specifically trained to treat the entire human body, they have the advantage of being knowledgeable about all bodily functions and organs and can more easily pinpoint an illness or disease regardless of the type of ailment. As part of an ongoing need for practicing internists, they regularly further their education to become more familiar with advancements in the field of medicine. The only limitation of their services is that they are restricted to adult-age patients (teenage and up). Those seeking healthcare services for young children can go to a family practitioner, a pediatrician or pediatric specialist.