Difference Between Internal Medicine and General Practice

The key difference between internal medicine and general practice is that the internal medicine manages diseases that the general practitioners cannot treat at their level of practice whereas the general practice treats minor diseases, identifies severe diseases, and refers those patients to specialized centres for further management.

General practice is one popular subsection of medicine that deals with the daily and usually non- severe problems of the patients while referring them to specialized care units if necessary. Internal medicine deals with the more serious ailments that GPs cannot manage at their level of practice.

CONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Internal Medicine
3. What is General Practice
4. Similarities Between Internal Medicine and General Practice
5. Side by Side Comparison – Internal Medicine vs General Practice in Tabular Form
6. Summary

What is Internal Medicine?

Internal medicine is probably the oldest branch of medical education. This field deals with the more serious ailments that cannot be managed at the GP level. Furthermore, the traditional ward setup and all the life-saving machinery are parts of internal medicine.

The people who practice internal medicine are known as physicians. They have to undergo years of clinical training and face quite a few exams to start practising as physicians.

What is General Practice?

After getting the MBBS degree from a medical college, doctors do further postgraduate studies on various fields depending on their passion and ambitions. General practice is one such popular field where the doctors deal with the daily and usually non- severe problems of the patients while referring them to specialized care units if necessary.

In some countries, it is necessary to obtain the membership of different governing bodies to practice as a general practitioner. Moreover, general practitioners play a key role in the identification and treatment of diseases in their most elementary states. Their role in disease prevention should not be overlooked.

What is the Similarity Between Internal Medicine and General Practice?

• Both are branches of health care service.

What is the Difference Between Internal Medicine and General Practice?

The main concern of the internal medicine is to manages diseases that cannot be treated at the general practice level. On the other hand, general practice deals in treating minor diseases, identification of severe diseases and referring those patients to specialized centres for further management are the purposes of general practice. This is the key difference between internal medicine and general practice.

Doctors who practice internal medicine (physicians) need more training and qualifications than general practitioners. In most of the countries, Doctors can start working as general practitioners after passing out from the medical college and obtaining the medical council registration.

Summary – Internal Medicine vs General Practice

General practice is one subsection of medicine that deals with the daily and usually non- severe problems of the patients while referring them to specialized care units if necessary. Internal medicine deals with the more serious ailments that a GP cannot manage at his or her level of practice. This is the major difference between internal medicine and general practice. In addition to that, the practitioners of internal medicine have to undergo more rigorous training spanning for several years than the general practitioners.

Reference:

1.Parveen Kumar. Kumar and Clark’s Clinical Medicine. Edited by Michael L Clark, 8th ed.

Image Courtesy:

1.’Seattle physician with patient 1999’By Seattle Municipal Archives from Seattle, WA – Doctors with patient, 1999, (CC BY 2.0) via Commons Wikimedia