Internal medicine is a medical specialty based on the diagnosis and treatment of complex, non-surgical conditions in adults. The internal medicine doctor acts as a conductor during the multidisciplinary treatment. They may be specialised in related disciplines, such as cardiology, pneumology, rheumatology, nephrology, diabetology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, nutrition, allergology, immunology, oncology, geriatrics, infectiology or haematology.
Internal medicine doctors care for patients in the emergency department as a first resort. If inpatient treatment is required in internal medicine, the internal medicine doctors monitor the patients throughout their stay. They therefore work closely with the attending doctor, who refers patients to them for investigations or treatments that cannot be performed on an outpatient basis.
They are also partners to specialist doctors at the hospital who seek them out as consultants for their patients. Internal medicine doctors are also family doctors who practice at a doctor's surgery.
