Doctors of Internal Medicine (who are referred to as “internists”) are Medical Specialists who focus on adult medicine. Their studies and training concentrate on the prevention and treatment of diseases in adults. Interns are not to be confused with “interns”, who are doctors in their first year of hospital residency training. Internists are sometimes referred to the “doctor’s doctor”, because they are often called upon to act as consultants to other physicians in helping to solve puzzling diagnostic problems.

While the term internal medicine may suggest that internists only treat “internal” problems, such is not the case. Doctors of internal medicine treat the whole person, not only internal organs.

The term internal medicine comes from the German innere medizin, a discipline popularized there in the late 1800s, to describe physicians who combined the science of the laboratory with the care of patients. Many early 20th century American doctors studied medicine in Germany and brought this medical field to the United States where the term was anglicized and adopted in its current form “internal medicine”.