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What's the difference is between 'Internal Medicine' and 'General Practice?

Family Practice MD vs. General Internal Medicine MD ~ difference?

  • Does anyone know WHAT the difference is between a Family Practice doctor and a General Interal Medicine doctor? Just curious as my doc is a GI and her partner is Family Practice..just wondering..

  • Answer:

    The main difference is the post med school training and their patient base. A family practice doc after med school completes a 3 year family medicine residency. Their job is basically primary care for anyone ranging from infants to the elderly. These guys you usually find working out of clinics or offices, they can be in hospital but generally are not. If you think of the small town doc who can do everything from deliver a baby or care for the dying, that's a family practice doc. An General Internist go through a 3 year residency in Internal Medicine. There primary goal is diagnosis and non-surgical treatment of specifically adults. They can be primary care similar to the family practice doc except only in adults or they can be in a more acute care setting in hospitals like in the ICU. After their residency, an internal medicine doc can then specialize into various fields like Gastroenterology, cardiology, neurology, endocrinology etc. etc. One more thing, a General Practitioner or GP is not equivalent to either of these fields. A GP has completed a 1 year internship post medical school and has not done any further training. Calling an Internist or Family doc, a "GP", is actually derogatory and you are insulting them.

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Family practice MD deals with everything from pediatrics to geriatrics and everything from pregnancy and cancer to broken bones and cut fingers. They're called GPs or general practicioners. They tend to make a lot of referrals to other specialists after making an initial diagnosis. The GP is likely to set a broken wrist or stitch up a laceration. The internist, on the other hand, is more of a specialist, limiting practice to the major circulatory, pulmonary, neurological, and digestive systems - that means heart and blood system, lungs, nerves, and stomach and intestines. He tends to stay away from stuff like cuts and bruises, broken bones, etc. The internist is likely to work with ulcers, pinched nerves, and polyps.

Stuart

Be careful with your abbreviations. GI suggests a gastroenterologist, and gastroenterology is a subspecialty of IM (intenal medicine). Both are three-year training programs that are typically broken down into month-long blocs of concentration on a specific area. Family practice includes training in obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, and a little in surgery and orthopedics. Internists aren't planning to treat children or pregnant women, so they can spend more of their training on medical subspecialties. With those exceptions, the two training programs have a lot of similarities, so each winds up spending much his training doing exactly the same things.

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