For anyone who has no adequate medical background, it can be quite hard to know the difference between a family medicine doctor and an internal medicine doctor (internist). After all, both are primary care physicians, and have training in several subspecialties.
Knowing the exact differences between the two healthcare professionals is crucial for efficiently deciding which of them is the right primary care physician for you. To help you better decide, here’s an outline of the key differences between family physicians and internists:
Patient Demographics
The most basic difference is that, in most cases. an internal medicine doctor focuses exclusively on treating adult patients, while a family medicine doctor typically sees patients of all age groups and multiple generations of a family.
Practice Setting
Another difference is where each physician cares for their patients: whereas family medicine doctors work in an outpatient setting, internists mostly work in hospitals.
Training
Another significant distinction between family medicine and internal medicine physicians lies in their training. Although both fields of medicine require residency following completion of medical school, the type of postgraduate training and its setting are different. Internal medicine residents attend to hospitalized patients for three years with training in everything— from emergency medicine and critical care to medical subspecialty care. Family practice residents, on the other hand, typically receive about a year of the same inpatient training, but then spend two years training in outpatient medical disciplines, such as pediatrics, or obstetrics and gynecology, for example.
Scope of Practice
Although internists have extensive training and advanced knowledge in treating the full range of health conditions affecting the adult population, family doctors have a broader scope of practice. Such allows the latter to care for patients of all ages with a gamut of health conditions.
Family physicians also tend to possess more training in certain specialties, such as women’s health, pediatrics, and orthopedics, to name a few. They also have strong relational skills that often enable them to bond with patients and their families over the long term.
Family Medicine Physician in Kennesaw, Georgia
