Internal Medicine is a specialty that focuses on the patient.
The specialty of internal medicine is different than the rest because of its focus on complex cases.
Most specialties focus on a specific organ or system, or disease. Internal medicine is the specialty that treat the ill and not the disease. The internal medicine specialist dedicates its attention to the animal as a whole and distinguishes as the expert in the clinical approach to multiple complex diseases affecting a single patient.
There are many subspecialties that are part of internal medicine, which includes urology and nephrology, gastroenterology, hematology, immunology, endocrinology, pulmonary diseases, and hepatic diseases. The internist is also an expert diagnostician and is trained to use advanced diagnostic tools like gastrointestinal endoscopy, cystoscopy, bronchoscopy, rhinoscopy, laparoscopy, among others.
The internist is the specialist that understands best an ill patient and is able to prioritize problems and help determine the relationship between problems.