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 110,417 practicing internal medicine doctors. Broken out by state, internal medicine doctor density in Alabama is 1,388, in Alaska is 134, in Arizona is 2,136, in Arkansas is 581, in California is 12,595, in Colorado is 1,365, in Connecticut is 2,212, in Delaware is 293, in District of Columbia is 575, in Florida is 5,731, in Georgia is 2,942, in Hawaii is 596, in Idaho is 248, in Illinois is 5,200, in Indiana is 1,701, in Iowa is 743, in Kansas is 746, in Kentucky is 1,414, in Louisiana is 1,489, in Maine is 536, in Maryland is 2,835, in Massachusetts is 5,489, in Michigan is 4,116, in Minnesota is 2,266, in Mississippi is 701, in Missouri is 2,261, in Montana is 282, in Nebraska is 499, in Nevada is 775, in New Hampshire is 581, in New Jersey is 3,827, in New Mexico is 676, in New York is 9,792, in North Carolina is 2,829, in North Dakota is 216, in Ohio is 4,280, in Oklahoma is 843, in Oregon is 1,600, in Pennsylvania is 5,038, in Rhode Island is 677, in South Carolina is 1,184, in South Dakota is 237, in Tennessee is 2,340, in Texas is 5,676, in Utah is 468, in Vermont is 288, in Virginia is 2,467, in Washington is 2,278, in West Virginia is 649, in Wisconsin is 2,082, and in Wyoming is 105.