Internal medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with treating the whole patient. An internal medicine physician, also called an internist, can treat many illnesses and conditions, and is skilled in treating a patient who has several illnesses or disorders at the same time. This internist, who can be a primary care physician, emphasizes disease prevention and wellness, but can treat problems of the eyes, ears, skin, nervous system and reproductive organs, along with mental health or substance abuse issues.

The internal medicine physician can also treat cancer or diseases of the heart, blood, kidneys, joints, and digestive, respiratory and vascular systems, while concentrating on the wellness of the patient as a whole.

Physicians in this specialty treat patients suffering from numerous diseases and illnesses, but some of the most common are emphysema, broncho-esophagology, bronchitis, pneumonia, osteoarthritis , hyper / hypoglycemia, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, asthma, pectus excavatum, osteoporosis, macular degeneration, cancer, infection, autism, congestive heart failure, herpes, hypertension, heart attack, and anemia.

Once properly diagnosed, practitioners can perform numerous procedures on patients including lithotripsy, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ercp, dialysis, angioplasty, mechanical ventilation, endoscopy, cardioversion, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ercp), cardiac ablation, and intra-aortic balloon pump.

To diagnose patients with possible illnesses and diseases, specialists will often perform one of many tests including faa-flight physicial, physicial / check up, bone density test, dialysis, physicial examination, computed axial tomography (ct or cat scan), magnetic resonance imaging (mri), ultrasound, x-ray, biopsy, blood test, electrocardiogram (ecg or ekg), upper gi (barium swallow), electrolyte test, lower gi (barium enema), stool test, ph probe test, and microbiological culture.

Doctor density varies by specialty and location. The United States has 112,279 practicing internal medicine doctors. Broken out by state, internal medicine doctor density in Alabama is 1,313, in Alaska is 160, in Arizona is 2,137, in Arkansas is 501, in California is 12,857, in Colorado is 1,542, in Connecticut is 2,054, in Delaware is 386, in District of Columbia is 685, in Florida is 5,896, in Georgia is 3,206, in Hawaii is 700, in Idaho is 228, in Illinois is 5,381, in Indiana is 1,680, in Iowa is 681, in Kansas is 785, in Kentucky is 1,350, in Louisiana is 1,333, in Maine is 523, in Maryland is 2,896, in Massachusetts is 6,202, in Michigan is 4,647, in Minnesota is 1,879, in Mississippi is 693, in Missouri is 2,289, in Montana is 259, in Nebraska is 529, in Nevada is 777, in New Hampshire is 657, in New Jersey is 3,663, in New Mexico is 672, in New York is 9,671, in North Carolina is 2,979, in North Dakota is 199, in Ohio is 4,618, in Oklahoma is 879, in Oregon is 1,539, in Pennsylvania is 5,399, in Rhode Island is 796, in South Carolina is 1,309, in South Dakota is 225, in Tennessee is 2,184, in Texas is 5,612, in Utah is 558, in Vermont is 264, in Virginia is 2,526, in Washington is 2,262, in West Virginia is 609, in Wisconsin is 1,986, and in Wyoming is 103.